What We Do

Ulmer & Berne attorneys currently represent city, local, exempted village, joint vocational, charter, public schools, districts, Educational Service Centers, and higher education institutions throughout Ohio. We are very experienced in defending school districts in all types of state and federal school litigation. In addition to litigation, Ulmer & Berne attorneys have experience with school district contract and transactional issues including all types of public financing, alternative schools, sale and acquisition of real estate, school facility construction, negotiation of cell tower leases and communications easements, competitive bidding, school transportation matters, new curriculum patent and copyright, environmental and regulatory law. Ulmer & Berne school law attorneys help school districts perform self-audits of state and federal funding, including successfully helping urban and other school districts recover millions of dollars in improper state payments to charter schools.

In addition to public transactional expertise, related areas of school law expertise include:

• School board organization/operations – Resolution drafting and parliamentary expertise, ethics issues, Ohio Sunshine Laws, affirmative action plans, the No Child Left Behind Act, public records requests and board policy compliance.

• Federal and state employment laws – Ohio Civil Rights Commission (OCRC) and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) complaints, Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), non-discrimination under Title VII, Title IX, Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA), Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), maternity leave, workers’ compensation, and litigation of religion, race, gender, search and seizure, and due process claims arising under the U.S. Constitution.