Law firm taken off school district list after firestorm over defense in teacher sex case
For the first time in almost 30 years, a California law firm does not appear on a list of dozens of legal shops recommended by the in-house legal department as outside counsel for the Los Angeles Unified School District.
The omission of Ivie, McNeill & Wyatt follows a firestorm over a controversial defense in a civil suit brought over a teacher who is accused of sexually abusing a student and has been criminally convicted in a related case. After public criticism of the district’s defense argument in the civil suit that the 14-year-old student shared the blame in the case because she concealed the relationship, the district said it was removing attorney W. Keith Wyatt from over a dozen cases. However, Wyatt was subsequently assigned five cases this year, the Los Angeles Times (sub. req.) reports .
Now it appears that Ivie, McNeill & Wyatt will not be doing any more work for the school district for the next five years, because the firm is not included on a list of recommended private counsel to handle matters that the district cannot oversee in-house. Such contract work has been waning in recent years, though, the article notes.
David Holmquist, the district’s general counsel, says more work is being handled in-house. That has helped the district to reduce its annual budget for outside counsel from $22 million in the 2001-2002 school year to $6.4 million last year.
Related coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Lawyer taken off 14 cases after furor over trial claim that teen consented to sex with teacher”
ABAJournal.com: “Appeals court blasts school’s claim teen ‘consented’ to teacher sex, nixes defense jury verdict”
