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NY Investigation of School Lawyers Expands Across Long Island

By Justin Bathon

Oh boy. The New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has caught wind of the school attorney scandal in a few districts on Long Island (see my earlier post) and is now requesting records on payments to school attorneys from all school districts across Long Island, reports Newsday and the ABA Journal. Newsday uncovered additional attorneys that have been on multiple district payrolls and this has triggered a systemwide investigation.

This could get ugly quickly, I am afraid. Certainly I support Mr. Cuomo's investigation and lawyers that were improperly billing schools should absolutely be punished (disbarring seems a likely and justified outcome). But, this could easily turn into a witch hunt. How nice for a politician to claim that they are protecting your children by eliminating the nasty lawyers that steal their money. Makes for a real nice headline, doesn't it. I certainly support this investigation and I am really looking forward to the data it will generate on legal usage by school districts, but I just want to point out that this could be the start of something really ugly if this spreads across New York and into other states. Schools, communities, and lawyers already have a tenuous relationship. Already I get suspect looks from school leaders when they find out I am an attorney. A national scandal like this could easily become would really harm the work that I and others across the country have been doing over the past few decades to strengthen those relationships. The fact is we need school boards, school leaders and school attorneys working closely together in the operation of schools and the better the relationship between those entities is, the better off the school system and our kids are. Let's find and punish those that did wrong, but let's not start with the supposition that every school district attorney is corrupt. It seems to me that Mr. Cuomo is not very far away from that supposition with this investigation.

Full post as published by Edjurist on February 26, 2008 (boomark / email).