School Solicitors 101
Over the last month, terms like “solicitor” and “RFP” have been discussed at the Pine-Richland School Board level and are generating discussions throughout the community. This creates an opportunity for everyone to better understand the role of the board and administration in choosing a legal partner, the process of going about it, and the importance of securing competent, knowledgeable counsel to protect and advise the district.
First, it is important to define terminology. An “RFP” is short for “Request for Proposal,” which is a formal, questionnaire-style document issued to prospective vendors from an organization that intends to buy a product or service. The RFP provides background information to potential vendors, asks key questions and invites them to submit a proposal to meet the need.
A “solicitor” is an attorney holding a public office that handles cases involving a city, state, or other jurisdiction. In the context of a school district, the solicitor serves as the legal counsel for the School Board and Administration. As outlined by the National School Board Association (NSBA), the solicitor is hired to help the district deal with legal issues and follow state and federal regulations that affect public schools. They seek to help the district avoid lawsuits, but when litigation occurs it is their job to assess the allegations, provide strategic advice, and to assign a competent litigator who will vigorously advocate and/or defend the district before both courts and administrative bodies:
“The key responsibilities of a solicitor include: Provide ongoing advice, representation and opinions on school law matters and legal questions as they arise, attend board meetings as desired by the board, preparation of contracts, requests for proposals or invitations to bid.” (https://www.psba.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/5Intro_School_Law.pdf)
The NSBA states that the qualifications for a school solicitor are as follows:
“Good school lawyers use independent judgment and avoid conflicts of interest. They are adept at preventative law and they focus on controlling legal issues whenever possible and anticipating problems and legal solutions before litigation happens. They are up-to-date on current school law trends and recent court decisions.” (https://www.nsba.org/Services/Council-of-School-Attorneys/What-School-Lawyers-Do)
Second, it is important to understand who has the power to select the solicitor. As set forth in the Pennsylvania School Code, the board of school directors has sole authority to appoint a solicitor, define the solicitor’s duties and establish their pay. 24 Pa. Stat. § 4-406. Pine-Richland Policy 005 states that the solicitor “[s]erve[s] at the pleasure of the Board” and may be removed by the board from such appointment. See PR Policy 005.
With that background, we now turn to the board’s recent decision to issue an RFP for the solicitor role, which some in the community find “alarming.” Consider this: the Pine-School Board and administration have used GRB Law—the current solicitor--for decades. PR has been remiss in not issuing an RFP to assess the market for legal services and perform a competitive analysis. See PR Policy 610 (“It is the policy of the Board to obtain competitive bids and price quotations for products and services where such bids or quotations are required by law or may result in monetary savings to the school district.”) Many companies require legal services to be reviewed at least every 3-5 years. Not doing so only benefits the law firm, not the school district. Some solicitors are kept in the role for so long that they possess more institutional knowledge and history about the district than management and staff, leaving the organization vulnerable to any sort of hourly rate or retainer hikes the law firm wants to pass along. It also makes the administration and staff inordinately dependent on the solicitor—in some ways even captive-- since the law firm may now have more knowledge about “how things are done” than any current administration. Seeking out fresh perspectives on the legal landscape of public education is an overall benefit to the organization that will be missed if the solicitor is not occasionally asked to establish his/her worth. Luckily, doing an RFP for legal services has little to no impact on students during the school year.
