Pro Bono — Recent Successes and Awards

Orrick continues its pro bono commitment to providing legal advice regarding the rebuilding of public schools in New Orleans after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Working in collaboration with Louisiana Appleseed, Orrick recently advised The Scott S. Cowen Institute for Public Education Initiatives, an education policy institution affiliated with Tulane University, about methods for allocating financial responsibility for facility expenses between charter schools and local school districts.

Pursuant to various Louisiana laws, local school districts provide charter schools with facilities. However, in New Orleans many of these facilities require costly repairs or renovations and disagreements have arisen about whether certain facility repairs constitute operating expenses to be paid by the charter school or capital expenses to be paid by the school district. Students have suffered as needed repairs have been delayed due to such disputes. To address this issue, Orrick drafted a memorandum that summarized existing laws and policies governing New Orleans charter school facilities, described how operating and capital expenses are distinguished in other contexts, and finally recommended best practices and model lease provisions. Local school districts and charter school operators may use the model lease provisions as a tool to clarify expectations in advance in order to minimize such facility disputes in the future.

San Francisco public finance associate Susan Dawson took the lead on statutory, regulatory and Web-based research and drafting the client memo. The Orrick team also included Los Angeles public finance partner Greg Harrington and San Francisco public finance senior associate Brooke Abola. San Francisco real estate special counsel Chris Chavez worked with summer associate Betsy Wang to develop the model charter school lease provisions. Portland tax of counsel Scott Schickli provided the tax and accounting advice.

Contact

For more information, please contact Rene Kathawala, Pro Bono Counsel, by e-mail at rkathawala@orrick.com or by phone at 212-506-5100.