DAVID NASH received his B.A. from Rutgers University and graduated with High Honors from Rutgers Law School in 2003. While at Rutgers Law School he served as an editor for the Rutgers Law Review. He previously served six years as a member of the Old Bridge Board of Education, including two years as board president. He currently serves as a member of the Board of Trustees for the Association for Children of New Jersey, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the interests of children. Mr. Nash currently serves as legal counsel for the New Jersey Principals and Supervisors Association. In this role, Mr. Nash provides legal assistance to NJPSA members for legal issues arising out of the performance of their duties. Mr. Nash is the recipient of the 2002 NJTESOL/NJBE Leadership Award and the 2005 Advocate of the Year Award from the New Jersey School Counselors Association. He previously served as Assistant Director of Government Relations for NJPSA from 1994 to 2003.

WAYNE OPPITO has served as legal counsel for the New Jersey Principals and Supervisors Association since 1981. Prior to becoming an attorney, he was a high school teacher of Social Studies. He is a frequent presenter at school law forums across the State of New Jersey and was an instructor for the Rutgers/FEA Education Law and Policy Institute from 2005 to 2008. Mr. Oppito earned his B.A. in History from Northeastern University and his J.D. from Seton Hall University School of Law. He has served as an adjunct professor at Georgian Court College. He was appointed by the Commissioner of Education to serve on the committee which revised seniority regulations. He has also served on the New Jersey Advisory Council on Law Related Education and the Attorney General’s panel on Drug and Alcohol Abuse in the schools.

ROBERT SCHWARTZ currently serves as chief counsel to the New Jersey Principals and Supervisors Association. He has been an attorney specializing in the areas of school law and public sector labor relations for a period of more than 30 years. Mr. Schwartz is a frequent presenter at school law forums across the State of New Jersey and was an instructor for the Rutgers/FEA Education Law and Policy Institute from 2005 to 2008. Mr. Schwartz earned his B.A. from the American University, School of Government and his J.D. from the Franklin Pierce Law center in Concord, New Hampshire. After clerking for a New Jersey Superior Court Judge, he became the first counsel to the New Jersey Elementary and Middle School Administrators and later became the first counsel to the New Jersey Principals and Supervisors Association, as well as the Foundation for Educational Administration.

V. ANDRE KEETON is a doctoral candidate at Rutgers University in the departments of Criminal Justice and Urban Education. He received his B.A. in history and Spanish at The University of Texas at Austin, and completed his Master of Public Affairs and Doctor of Jurisprudence concurrently at The University of Texas at Austin. He teaches at the Rutgers School of Criminal Justice, where he has developed curricula for three courses: Constitutional Law in Criminal Justice, Gender Crime and Justice, and Ethical and Philosophical Foundations. In addition, he developed the curriculum for and directs the Pre-College Academy of Law and Criminal Justice, a joint venture between the School of Criminal Justice, Rutgers-Newark EOF, and University High School in Newark, New Jersey. In 2007 he co-authored a policy brief entitled “New Jersey's Special Review Assessment: Loophole or Lifeline?” A member of the New York State Bar, his legal career includes serving as an Assistant District Attorney-Bronx County, New York City, New York from 1998-2004, where he primarily prosecuted cases for the Sex Crimes and Narcotics Bureaus.

TERESA MOORE has consulted with the Rutgers-Newark Institute on Education Law and Policy since 2006, after practicing law with the law firm of McCarter & English, LLP for eighteen years. She collaborated in developing the curriculum for LEGAL ONE. She has researched and written IELP publications such as the reports “Shared Services in School Districts: Policies, Practices and Recommendations” and “Guide to the New Jersey Quality Single Accountability Continuum (QSAC),” as well as an upcoming study of governance in major urban school systems. In private legal practice Ms. Moore represented public school districts and independent schools, providing counseling and representation in litigated matters in areas such as special education, civil rights, discrimination, employment disputes, contract matters, and pupil discipline. She has argued numerous cases before the state and federal courts of New Jersey, including the New Jersey Supreme Court, and in the New Jersey Office of Administrative Law. Her private practice also included representing clients in employment matters. Ms. Moore holds a J.D. from Rutgers Law School-Newark, was a member of the Rutgers Law Review, and is a graduate of Wellesley College. She served as a law clerk to the Honorable John E. Keefe in the Superior Court of New Jersey, Chancery Division before beginning private law practice.

RUTH MOSCOVITCH is an independent fact-finder, arbitrator and mediator. She serves as a research associate with the Rutgers Institute of Education Law and Policy. She has taught education law to New Jersey principals and supervisors as part of the joint Rutgers-NJPSA program with the Foundation for Educational Administration, and also taught education law to aspiring school principals at Baruch College in New York City. She currently serves as a hearing officer for the State of New York Department of Education, deciding §3020-a discipline cases involving tenured teachers employed by the New York City Department of Education. She also serves on a number of arbitration panels including the New Jersey Public Employment Relations Commission, New Jersey Board of Mediation, New York State Employment Relations Board, American Arbitration Association, and the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. She is Vice President of the New Jersey chapter of the Labor and Employment Relations Association. Ms. Moscovitch recently relocated with her husband to Hillside, New Jersey from Chicago where she served as General Counsel to the Chicago Public Schools. She is a member of the Bar in Illinois and New York. She received her law degree cum laude from Northwestern University and her bachelor’s degree cum laude from Radcliffe College, Harvard University.

ROSLYN POWELL serves as a consultant with the Institute on Education Law and Policy, and also works as high school social studies and law teacher. She is a co-founder and board member of A Better Balance: The Work and Family Legal Center, a legal advocacy organization dedicated to empowering people to meet the conflicting demands of work and family without sacrificing their economic security. A graduate of Stanford Law School, she has a wide range of experience in law and public policy. She has worked at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law where she served as an associate counsel with the Center’s Poverty Program, and as a staff attorney at NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund where she focused on litigation and policy initiatives on child care and reproductive rights issues. Ms. Powell also worked as a litigation associate at Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen and Hamilton and served as a law clerk to the Honorable Robert L. Carter of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Ms. Powell received her A.B. from Brown University and M.P.A. from Columbia University.

ALAN SADOVNIK is Professor of Education, Sociology and Public Administration and Affairs at Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey, where he is the Coordinator of the Educational Policy track of the Ph.D. Program in Urban Systems, and Co- Director of the Institute on Educational Law and Policy and the Newark Schools Research Collaborative. He received his B.A. in sociology from Queens College of the City University of New York and M.A. and Ph.D. in sociology from New York University.  He is the author of Equity and Excellence in Higher Education (1995); coauthor of Exploring Education: An Introduction to the Foundations of Education (1994, 2001, 2006); editor of Knowledge and Pedagogy: The Sociology of Basil Bernstein (1995) and Sociology of Education: A Critical Reader (2007); and coeditor of Exploring Society (1987), International Handbook of Educational Reform (1992), Implementing Educational Reform: Sociological Perspectives on Educational Reform (1995), “Schools of Tomorrow,” Schools of Today: What Happened to Progressive Education (1999), Sociology and Education: An Encyclopedia (2002), Founding Mothers and Others: Women Educational Leaders During the Progressive Era (2002) and No Child Left Behind and the Reduction of the Achievement Gap: Sociological Perspectives on Federal Educational Policy (2008). 

He received the Willard Waller Award in 1993 from the American Sociological Association’s Sociology of Education Section for the outstanding article published in the field, and American Educational Studies Association Critics Choice Awards in 1995 for Knowledge and Pedagogy, in 2000 for “Schools of Tomorrow,” and in 2002 for Founding Mothers and Others.  He is coeditor, with Susan F. Semel, of the History of Schools and Schooling series at Peter Lang Publishing, the Palgrave Series in Urban Education at Palgrave-MacMillan and the Schooling around the World Series at Greenwood Press.  He is currently the Chair of the AERA Sociology of Education SIG and has served as the Program Chair for the Sociology of Education SIG and the Sociology of Education Section of ASA.  He is currently on the editorial boards of Teachers College Record, History of Educational Quarterly and The Urban Review and was on the boards of Sociology of Education and Educational Foundations.

PAUL TRACTENBERG is a Board of Governors Distinguished Service Professor and Alfred C. Clapp Distinguished Public Service Professor of Law at Rutgers School of Law-Newark.  In September 2000, Professor Tractenberg established and continues to serve as founding director of the Institute on Education Law and Policy, an interdisciplinary research project at Rutgers-Newark.  Professor Tractenberg earned his B.A. from Wesleyan and his J.D. from the University of Michigan, where he was associate editor of the Law Review.  He joined the Rutgers faculty in 1970, after being associated with two major New York City law firms, the Peace Corps, and the Governor’s Committee to Study New York Human Rights Laws.  He is the author of numerous books, articles, and papers on education law; a frequent lecturer; and consultant and adviser to many national, regional, and state organizations and agencies.  In 1973, Professor Tractenberg established the Education Law Center, a public interest law project, and served as its director for three years.  He is involved in a number of landmark constitutional cases about public education, especially Abbott v. Burke, which New Jersey judges and lawyers voted overwhelmingly the most important state court decision of the 20th century.  During the 1980s and 1990s, Professor Tractenberg built upon long-standing interests in the lawyering process and in dispute resolution by teaching three seminars, by serving as faculty adviser to the law school’s regional and national championship negotiations and client counseling teams, and by writing and consulting in the field.  He is the author of a lawyer’s deskbook on alternate and complementary dispute resolution.

DAVID RUBIN is a sole practitioner with offices in Metuchen, and represents public school districts and private schools throughout New Jersey.  Mr. Rubin received his undergraduate degree from Duke University in 1974, majoring in public policy studies and economics.  He received his law degree from Rutgers School of Law - Newark in 1977, and has pursued post-graduate study in taxation at New York University School of Law.  He has served as President of the New Jersey Association of School Attorneys, Chair of the National School Boards Association’s 3000-member Council of School Attorneys, Chair of the New Jersey State Bar Association’s School Law Committee, and a lecturer in education law at the Rutgers Graduate School of Education.  He is a frequent speaker and author in the field of school law, and has represented school districts in numerous precedent-setting cases before the Commissioner of Education, and at all levels of the state and federal court system.

Mr. Rubin has received the "AV" designation from the Martindale-Hubbell Legal Directory, the highest rating for competence and character based on confidential peer reviews.  He has been recognized by SuperLawyers magazine (2009) and Best Lawyers in America (2009), and been honored by the New Jersey Commission on Professionalism in the Law as a recipient of the Professional Lawyer of the Year Award, given annually to lawyers who, by virtue of their conduct, competence and demeanor, have been found to set a positive example for others in the profession. 

http://www.rubinlaw.net

LANCE KALIK, a partner in Riker, Danzig's Litigation Department, represents a broad clientele, ranging from lawyers to insurance companies to school districts and municipalities.
Mr. Kalik handles a variety of insurance cases, including complex coverage litigation and bad-faith disputes. He also has a significant practice defending lawyers in malpractice suits. He represents a number of New Jersey school districts, both as general counsel and in more specialized activities.
He has also represented clients in agency termination disputes, class action litigation, RICO and fraud-related claims, environmental issues, employee benefits and disability claims, and condominium liability issues.
Mr. Kalik has argued extensively in state and federal courts, on both the trial and appellate levels. He also has considerable experience in arbitration and mediation proceedings. In 2006, the New Jersey Law Journal named him one of the state's "40 Under 40" lawyers considered to be high achievers and future leaders. He also has been named among the top commercial litigation and insurance lawyers in New Jersey in Best Lawyers in America ®, a peer review of US lawyers.

BRENDA LISS joined Riker Danzig as counsel in January 2008. She formerly served as Executive Director of the Institute on Education Law and Policy, Rutgers School of Law. She joined the Institute in 2002, after having spent 16 years in private practice with McCarter & English, LLP, where her practice concentrated in education and employment law. Her Riker Danzig clients include boards of education, charter schools, and private schools.
Ms. Liss has appeared on behalf of clients in state and federal courts, the New Jersey Office of Administrative Law, the State Board of Examiners, the Public Employee Relations Commission the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletics Association; presented testimony to the New Jersey State Legislature; and represented clients in mediation, grievance hearings and arbitration proceedings, and in collective bargaining. She teaches education law as an adjunct faculty member in the Rutgers School of Public Affairs and Administration, and has taught as an adjunct faculty member at Rutgers School of Law - Newark. She also has served as faculty for the Rutgers-FEA Education Law and Policy Institute and LEGAL ONE, programs offered jointly by Rutgers and the New Jersey Principals and Supervisors for principals, aspiring principals and school administrators.
She is the author or co-author of the following Institute on Education Law and Policy reports:

PAUL KALAC, an attorney with Parker McCay's School Law Group, concentrates his practice in the areas of school law, education law, public sector labor law and administrative law. He represents public school boards of education in all areas affecting their operation, with a focus on special education law. In the area of special education law, Mr. Kalac represents dozens of school districts throughout New Jersey and regularly appears in hearings before the Office of Administrative Law and the U.S. District Court, on their behalf.

Mr. Kalac also represents school districts as a labor negotiator in bargaining for collective negotiation agreements between the local board of education and the local employees' union. He frequently appears before the Public Employment Relations Commission (PERC) in all labor disputes between local boards of education and their employees.  He is a member of  the Mercer County Bar Association and a frequent lecturer for the New Jersey School Boards Association on various school-related issues, especially special education law. Parker McCay's School Law Group has decades of experience providing comprehensive legal services to school districts throughout New Jersey. The group’s expertise includes all aspects of school district representation, including general counsel, labor/personnel, special education, public finance and construction. It provides quality legal services to over 80 school districts throughout New Jersey.

http://www.parkermccay.com

PHILIP STERN, a founding member of Adams Stern Gutierrez & Lattiboudere, has been practicing in the areas of labor and employment and education law on behalf of employers for the past eighteen years.  During that time, Mr. Stern has represented public and private sector employers in all areas of labor and employment law, participating extensively in litigation, negotiations and counseling.  
    
After a ten-year career in education, during which time  Mr. Stern helped found a private, alternative school in Newark, New Jersey (Kids School) and taught Middle School students at Glenfield Middle School in Montclair, New Jersey, he attended New York Law School, where he was an editor of the New York Law School Law Review.  Mr. Stern also earned a Master’s Degree in Educational Administration and Supervision from Montclair State University.
    
As a litigator, Mr. Stern has appeared before all levels of New Jersey State Courts, including the New Jersey Supreme Court and New Jersey Administrative tribunals.  He has also litigated in the federal courts of New Jersey, Massachusetts and New York.  On behalf of a public sector employer, Mr. Stern successfully defended a New Jersey Superior Court jury trial brought under the Conscientious Employee Protection Act (“CEPA”) - a case that was affirmed on appeal.
    
As a negotiator, Mr. Stern is a recent President of the North American Association of Educational Negotiators, a continent-wide organization dedicated to the betterment of negotiations in the education sector.   Mr. Stern has been trained in all methods of collective bargaining, from positional to interest-based, and has given seminars all over the country on various methods of bargaining.

http://www.asgllaw.com

DERLYS GUTIERREZ, a founding member of Adams Stern Gutierrez & Lattiboudere, has been an attorney for 18 years, representing public school districts in matters involving employment issues, public sector bargaining, special education law, and general school law.  She commenced her legal career representing public sector clients at the firm of Murray, Murray and Corrigan where she represented numerous public school districts throughout the State of New Jersey.  She subsequently moved to Sills Cummis where she expanded her experience into the private sector area in labor and employment matters.  She also represented public school districts in the areas of general school law, labor and employment law and special education.  She has represented her school board clients in all areas including construction arbitration, employment discrimination, special education, grievance arbitration, and labor negotiations.  She successfully tried numerous tenure dismissal cases and teacher seniority cases before the Office of Administrative Law, as well as special education cases before administrative agencies and in federal court.

From 1997 through 2007, she was the Director of Human Resources for the Passaic Public Schools, a large public school district in New Jersey with approximately 13,000 students and 2,000 employees, where she handled negotiations with 5 employee bargaining units, as well as countless grievance arbitrations.  She also successfully handled an Abbott school district budget appeal on behalf of the Passaic Public Schools.  As a member of the Superintendent’s Cabinet, Ms. Gutierrez worked diligently in preparing whole school reform budgets and gained experience in the inner workings of a school district that gives her a unique perspective as an attorney representing boards of education.

http://www.asgllaw.com

CHERIE ADAMS, a founding member of Adams Stern Gutierrez & Lattiboudere, has over 24 years of legal experience devoted to the representation of management in school law, labor and employment matters.  
    
Ms. Adams provides counseling to clients on a variety of education and employment-related matters, including special education, evaluations, discipline, the development of employment agreements, policy development and implementation, internal grievance and complaint mechanisms, contract administration and employee rights and responsibilities.  Additionally, she handles all types of education litigation and employment litigation and defends against claims on behalf of public and private entities.  Ms. Adams regularly represents clients in administrative proceedings, state and federal trial court and appellate litigation.
    
Immediate Past President of the New Jersey Association of School Attorneys, Ms. Adams is also Secretary to the New Jersey Bar Administrative Law Section and a member of the School Law Committee of the New Jersey State Bar and the National Council of School Attorneys.  She frequently lectures at seminars on labor and employment issues and education topics and has provided training to administrators and employees on education issues.  
    
Ms. Adams’ legal experience is supplemented by service as an adjunct professor of education law and in her role as a board member in Monmouth County.

http://www.asgllaw.com

PERRY LATTIBOUDERE, a founding member of Adams Stern Gutierrez & Lattiboudere, has been practicing before federal and State courts for 15 years and has represented school districts for over a decade.  He previously served as the Chief Legal Counsel to New Jersey’s largest school district, the Newark Public Schools, a position he held for six years. He was responsible for all legal matters involving the District and counseled the Superintendent, administrative staff, the Advisory Board of Education and District managers on a wide variety of legal issues. These included litigation matters, employee discipline and discrimination complaints, budgetary matters, collective bargaining, grievance and arbitrations, labor and employee relations, contract drafting and review, bidding issues, special education, tenure and civil service compliance.  

Prior to becoming General Counsel at the Newark Public Schools (“the District”), Mr. Lattiboudere served as the District’s Director of Labor & Employee Relations. In that capacity he was responsible for negotiating and implementing the District’s agreed to terms for over 7,500 employees. His role included serving as the District’s chief management representative during collective bargaining with the District’s nine unions.

Mr. Lattiboudere is currently the President of the New Jersey Association of School Attorneys. His legal experience is supplemented by his current position as an adjunct professor of education law for Fordham University and previously at Kean University.  He is licensed to practice in New Jersey, the United States District Court and the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

http://www.asgllaw.com