Our lawyers are deeply familiar with the powers, procedures and operations of local, state, and federal governments. This enables them to represent counties, cities, towns, school districts, and other local governmental entities in matters ranging from litigation defense, to bond financing, to conducting oversight and audits, to drafting statutes, ordinances, and regulations.
Litigation. Our attorneys have a longstanding history of handling trial and appellate litigation involving governmental entities. They have handled cases involving the First Amendment and other provisions of the federal Constitution, religion issues and civil rights statutes, law enforcement, students’ rights and responsibilities, 42 U.S.C. § 1983, and other statutory and regulatory provisions affecting public entities.
In addition to handling litigation entirely on their own, the firm’s attorneys are available to draft critical motions or otherwise lend their substantive expertise to an existing litigation team. In all instances, we strive to maintain working arrangements that are sensitive to the myriad considerations—financial and otherwise—that governmental entities face.
Transactional & Advisory. Our lawyers have extensive public-sector experience. They have served as general counsel to local legislators and legislative committees, conducted oversight of executive agencies, worked on budget, finance and tax-policy issues, and drafted legislation, ordinances, and regulations of all kinds. Leveraging that experience, our attorneys are available to serve as general counsel to smaller municipalities that do not have in-house counsel or to function as special counsel for specific projects or matters. Their work encompasses the full array of issues that municipalities confront, including the following:
- Labor Relations and Pension Matters: We have experience with labor matters, including pension-plan and pension-investment issues, civil service disputes, the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, workers’ and unemployment compensation, equal employment opportunity regulations, occupational health and safety matters and emerging right-to-know law issues.
- Procurement and Construction-Contract Administration: The firm has experience in the areas of procurement by public agencies and the administration of governmental contracts. Firm attorneys can review state and federal grant contracts, and advise on public-sector procurement, service and construction contract matters, and bonds and letters of credit.
- Real Estate: In addition to handling the full extent of real-estate matters that municipalities confront, such as long-term leases or other dispositions of public land, firm attorneys can prepare earned-income, business-privilege, realty-transfer, and real-estate tax ordinances for municipal clients.
- Budget and Tax Policy: The firm also has substantial experience in preparing municipal budgets, drafting budget legislation, and advising on state and local tax policy, economic development, bond financing, and financial services.
- Other Legislative and Municipal Work: The firm’s attorneys can draft, advise, negotiate, and litigate in the areas of cable-television and satellite-dish regulation, consumer protection, health care and insurance, education, mass transit and other transportation matters, and emerging areas in municipal operations. The firm also has substantial experience regarding Freedom of International Act requests and with oversight and audits in a variety of contexts.