Termination of School Board’s Attorney
Accurate and Factual
- The School Board’s Attorney is employed by the School Board. The Attorney is also regulated by Florida Bar and the Florida Supreme Court.
- The School Board voted to terminate the Attorney.
- The Attorney threatened litigation against the Flagler County School District and its Board.
- The Attorney never provided her client, the School Board or its members, with legal advice that that her threat of litigation created a conflict of interest between herself the Board which may put the District in legal peril.
- When a conflict of interest arises between the Attorney and the Board, the (i) the Florida Bar and (ii) the Attorney’s contract with the Board requires the Attorney to provide the Board with notice of such a conflict and recommend to the Board that it get an attorney to advise them on such a conflict between the two.
- Despite not receiving such notice of a conflict of interest from the Attorney, the Board hired two law firms to give it legal advice.
- The law firms provided the District with legal advice and approved the Board’s Termination Letter to the Attorney.
- Despite bloggers’ misrepresentations, the Termination Letter explicitly stated it was “for cause” but did not enumerate each example.
- According to the Board’s attorneys handling this matter, the Termination Letter was properly drafted in light of the Attorney’s threat of litigation against the District and Board.
Question: The School Board members are not lawyers. In light of the Board Attorney’s threat of filing a lawsuit against the Board and District, was the Board prudent in following the advice of their legal counsel which includes issuing the Termination Letter and not discussing the details which might put the District in legal peril?
Leave a Comment