EDUCATION PRACTICE

We currently provide legal services to numerous schools located throughout Pennsylvania and New Jersey. We handle all types of legal matters including education, litigation, employment and labor, corporation formation and dissolution, real property leases and purchases, contract drafting and negotiations, among others.

LATSHA DAVIS YOHE & MCKENNA, P.C. serves as solicitor for numerous charter schools throughout the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and special counsel for several more schools. We have represented a number of schools in the litigation of cases before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court which were successfully concluded. We have also successfully represented Charter Schools before the Commonwealth Court and the State Education Appeal Board (CAB).

Our charter school clients vary from schools in the beginning stages of organization prior to obtaining a charter to schools seeking renewals of their initial charters.  On a daily basis, we handle a variety of issues including facilities and maintenance, employment, student and professional staff discipline, special education, transportation, equipment, property purchases and leases, financing, fund-raising, vendor contracts, etc.  We routinely deal with other districts and often interact with the solicitors of these school districts on our client's behalf. In addition, we have developed professional relationships with the Pennsylvania Department of Education.  Kevin McKenna is general counsel for the Pennsylvania Coalition of Charter Schools.

In the past few years our clients have faced numerous legal issues including unique personnel and disciplinary issues, challenges to their charters, transportation issues, breach of contract law suits against outside vendors, special education hearings, employment claims, etc.

In the area of special education our attorneys are skilled in evaluating the common special education pitfalls and can provide strategies for avoiding liability before it occurs.  We counsel schools on the appropriate discipline for special education students; the writing and defending of IEPs and Section 504 plans; responding to parent complaints and preparing for due process hearings and compliance audits; appropriately educating and accommodating students in the least restrictive environment; and collecting and maintaining appropriate documentation to defend against detractors and claimants alike.

We recognize that each school is different and that each Board is also dissimilar. Some of our clients request that we attend every public meeting and at times provide the public with updates of legal issues. Many of the parents and Board members of the schools which embrace this approach appreciate the information coming directly from the school’s solicitor rather than through the grapevine or the media. As solicitors, we attend executive sessions of Board meetings. These meetings are closed to the public and afford the Board and us the opportunity to speak confidentially about personnel and legal matters. It is in this role as advisor that LATSHA DAVIS YOHE & MCKENNA, P.C. excels.  Our attorneys acknowledge and accept that the mission of schools is to educate children and to foster choice in public education. We recognize the strain that certain expenses have on already tight school budgets. It is because of our experience in representing so many schools that we are successful in minimizing costs without compromising quality legal representation. We are able to meet the needs of our schools because of our school experience and because of the combined experience of our attorneys.