The firm has extensive experience with the representation of certain occupations. Those occupations are teachers, law enforcement officers, nurses, professors, students and other faculty and staff.
Education.
Students faced with suspensions, dismissals, expulsions or other discipline often have recourse through an administrative body that controls the school, college or university. At the primary and secondary level, a local school board usually has the power to hear a student appeal and to change the outcome of the matter. At the college or university level, there are often specific rules and policies in place to hear an appeal by a student and to change the outcome of the matter.
For teachers at the primary and secondary levels, there is often recourse available through a local school board, a state board of education, or through a union grievance.
For professors and other faculty members of a college or university, there is usually a system of rules and policies in place to consider appeals of decisions made by deans, presidents, chancellors or others with administrative power.
For administrators, the terms of a contract might be the primary source of any relief that can be sought from decisions made by a local or state agency that has decision-making power.
Medicine & Healthcare.
Nurses can be subject to discipline internally, through an employer’s system, or externally through a state agency that issues a nursing license. For both internal and external discipline, there will normally be a set of procedures that control any proposed discipline imposed on a nurse and the nurse’s license.
Doctors and other health care professionals will usually have available a system of rules and polices that control their conduct. If the professional is licensed there is a state agency that has jurisdiction to hear and consider disciplinary matters.
Law Enforcement.
Discipline sought to be imposed on a police officer can usually be challenged through a city’s procedures for such challenges. If there is a fraternal order of police lodge or other union, additional procedures will be available to the officer. Under a U.S. Supreme Court case, Garitty, a police department may not inquire of an officer about a matter that might expose the officer to a criminal charge. The department can take other investigatory steps.
Sheriff’s deputies will usually have a procedure available to challenge any proposed discipline at the county level.
Administrative and support personnel for local and state agencies may have some protection through established procedures. Personnel for state bureaus of investigation, including agents, normally have procedural protections that can be exercised.