Mr. Roos, the chair of the firm’s Education Law Group, has been practicing school law and employment law in Montgomery County for over two decades. He is known throughout the state for his expertise in education law. Currently, he serves as the solicitor for several public school districts in Southeastern Pennsylvania and provides legal representation and advice to numerous other public school districts, charter schools, and other educational and governmental entities. He has particular experience representing School Districts in civil rights matters before the U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Pennsylvania, Relations Commission, as well as the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania through appeals to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.  Mr. Roos is regularly asked to draft policies and provide advice to school district clients regarding issues of free speech for students and teachers, religion in the schools and other constitutional issues. Clients have come to him throughout the area for assistance with litigating the suspension, dismissal and demotion of professional and non-professional employees, including litigation in connection with public sector employees in civil rights cases, labor arbitrations, and Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board hearings.  Mr. Roos is the past President (2006) of the Pennsylvania School Board Solicitors Association and is a frequent speaker at educational law seminars throughout the state. A graduate of Grove City College and the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, Mr. Roos is a long-standing member of the Ambler Area YMCA Board of Managers.

Representative Matters:

• Assisted the School District of Upper Dublin as it became the only school district in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to have its voters approve an electoral debt referendum in 2007.
• Obtained the first mandate waiver for single prime contractor for major school construction project in 2001; such mandate waivers have since been upheld by Pa. Supreme Court.
• Represented municipal and school district clients in numerous successful defense of employment discrimination cases in Federal court, as well as before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Human Pennsylvania Relations Commission.
• Counseled School Districts in successfully navigating the Charter School Application Review process including conducting hearings on Charter Applications.
• Successfully represented public school districts in a $17,000,000 class action over alleged “spot assessments.”
• Successfully represented Lower Merion School District in student redistricting case arising from the opening of the Belmont Hills Elementary School.