Education Law

The State’s Duty to Provide a Constitutionally Sufficient Education

For over two decades, we have been involved in representing children who attend public school in relatively poor school districts in an ongoing effort to secure a quality education. One of our attorneys, Michael Weisman, served as lead counsel in the landmark case of McDuffy v. Secretary, 415 Mass. 545 (1993) in which the Supreme Judicial Court held that the state has a constitutionally enforceable duty to provide public school students with a quality education. During 2003 and 2004, Mr. Weisman served as lead counsel in a seven-month trial before Judge (now Supreme Judicial Court Judge) Margot Botsford. At the conclusion of the trial, Judge Botsford issued a 300+ page report finding that the state is still not meeting its duty to provide the required education and recommending further relief. Although the Supreme Judicial Court did not adopt Judge Botsford's report and award further relief, it accorded "great deference to the Superior Court's thoughtful and detailed findings of fact," and acknowledged that "serious inadequacies in public education remain." Mr. Weisman has continued his efforts on behalf of children in Massachusetts serving as a member of Governor Patrick's task force on education. He has also consulted in school adequacy cases in states around the country and is a Visiting Clinical Lecturer in Law at Yale Law School in its Education Adequacy Project.


Safety and Security for Abused Children, the Elderly and the Mentally ill

We have represented children who have been the victims of abuse and professional malpractice. For example, we negotiated a favorable settlement against a school and its administrators on behalf of five children with significant disabilities who were physically and emotionally abused by their teacher. The settlement was reached in the middle of a lengthy trial, after significant publicity about the evidence of misconduct. As a result of the publicity surrounding the case, two additional families whose children had been in the same program contacted our attorney, who was able to negotiate a prompt and favorable settlement of their claims.