Public school districts and their administrators, charter schools, private schools, and private and public universities will find excellent service at Kirton & McConkie. Experienced education lawyers and school administrators are backed by a full service law firm with as much experience handling the needs of education clients as any firm in the state of Utah.

Members of the firm and section have served as presidents and members of the state school board, local school boards, and have advised education clients on a myriad of legal issues unique to education clients. Firm clients include the Alpine, Park City, Jordan, San Juan, and numerous other local school districts. The firm also advises the Utah School Boards Association, the State Office of Education, and other educational entities in Utah, including Brigham Young University.

The range of matters that have been handled by members of the section is broad. Our experience includes student discipline and employment matters, Federal OCR and State Office reviews of bilingual and special education programs, representation of school districts in complex litigation involving special education, civil rights, bilingual education, student discipline, and employment termination. In addition, we have experience with school finance and school clubs issues and real property work, including condemnation for local school districts. We have also advised Brigham Young University on a number of matters, including employment issues and policies and Title IX concerns.

Kirton & McConkie's Education Law Practice Section is uniquely situated to advise school districts. We are the only group of lawyers in Utah with significant experience in the public schools. Among other things, our attorneys have worked as public school teachers, administrators, and school board members; therefore we understand the context in which school legal issues arise. Furthermore, the section stays current with cutting-edge educational and legal issues through involvement in organizations such as the National School Boards Association's Counsel of School Attorneys, the Education Law Association, Phi Delta Kappa, National Association of Secondary School Principals, and the Society of Professionals in Dispute Resolution.

Pro-Active
The section is active in professional and volunteer activities that assist the community and further the study of school law. Some of the section's recent and on-going projects include:

• Presentation on school violence to Utah School Boards Association's Pre-Delegate Assembly, August, 1999.
• Presentation on religious conflict in public school, Education Law Association National Conference, Chicago, Illinois, November, 1999.
• Presentation on religious issues in public schools, National School Boards Association 60th Annual Conference, Orlando, Florida, April 2000.
• Assistant Clinical Professor of Education Law, University of Utah Graduate School of Education.
• Volunteer at Glendale Intermediate School, Salt Lake City School District.
• Several published articles in refereed school law journals.

School Administration
Advice regarding all aspects of School Law, from A to Z:

• A - Academic freedom, Accountability, ADA, Athletics
• B - Bilingual education, Background checks
• C - Charter schools, Civil rights, Construction, Copyright
• D - Diversity, Drug testing, Due process
• E - Equal access, Establishment Clause, Evaluations
• F - FERPA, Fees, First Amendment
• G - Gangs, Gifted & Talented, Goals 2000, Guns
• H - Hazing, HIV, Home school
• I - Immunization, Internet
• J - Journals, Juvenile crime
• K - Kindergarten, Knives
• L - Labor negotiations, Limited English proficient
• M - Medication, Methodology, Movies
• N - NCAA, Negligence, Nepotism
• O - OCR, Open meetings, Orderly school termination
• P - Parental rights, Pornography, Privacy
• Q - Qualified immunity
• R - Racial discrimination, Real estate, Rehabilitation Act
• S - Safety, Search and Seizure, Sexual harassment, Suicide
• T - Teachers, Technology, Title VII, Title IX, Truancy
• V - Violence, Vouchers, Volunteers
• W - Weapons, Workers' compensation
• Y - Y2K
• Z - Zero tolerance

Dispute Resolution

• Mediation, both as advocate or neutral moderator
• Arbitration
• State and federal court litigation