State & Local Government Litigation

Balch and Bingham's long history of representing state and local governments is reflected in this Group, which counsels and represents all branches of state government, constitutional officers, and state, county, and municipal governing bodies and public officials. Group lawyers are active in state and federal trial and appellate courts, at the United States Department of Justice, State Attorney General offices, various administrative venues, and before state legislatures. Group lawyers also represent quasi-public organizations that work closely with government agencies.

Activities typically handled by members of this Group include:

Actions brought under § 1983
Civil rights class actions
Drafting and reviewing legislation, regulations, ordinances, and policies
Education law and litigation (K-12 and higher education)
Employment discrimination cases and employment law counseling
Environmental regulation, compliance, and litigation
First amendment compliance and litigation
Litigating and counseling on open meeting and public record laws
Policy audits and counseling
Public school desegregation cases
Redistricting for congressional, legislative, county, and municipal districts
Section 5 preclearance submissions to the United States Attorney General
Voting rights lawsuits

Representative matters include:

Defending a flagship state university in a decades long state-wide higher-education desegregation lawsuit
Representing a state legislature’s redistricting committee through multiple decennial redistrictings and related lawsuits
Representing a state’s chief justice and judicial system in a Voting Rights Act-based challenge to the method of electing judges
Defending a state-wide board against claims that it violated open meeting laws, and establishing new precedent favorable to this client
Defending a will contest to perfect a state university’s interest in a major bequest
Appearing as amicus for a probate judge seeking to shape a state’s response to a HAVA lawsuit brought by the United States
Assisting with drafting legislation on a variety of topics including termination of public school teachers and employees, outdoor advertising, and open meetings/public records
Defending a state department of education against race-based challenges to teacher certification tests
Defending a state department of transportation in latter stages of a long-running employment discrimination case, resulting in termination of a decades-old consent decree
Serving as counsel for numerous cities, counties, and school boards in constitutional and Voting Rights Act litigation involving challenged election systems, including lead counsel in omnibus Dillard v. Crenshaw County litigation
Representing boards of education and state agencies in consent decree negotiations as a means of ending long-running lawsuits, and assisting with compliance with the consent decrees and, ultimately, their dissolution