Joanne L. Butler
jlb@spsk.com

Joanne L. Butler is a partner with Schenck, Price, Smith & King’s Business and Real Estate and Litigation Departments. Her law practice is primarily devoted to the areas of public employment and education law. She represents numerous boards of education as general or special counsel. In addition to providing her school district clients with counsel in the many components of school law, including student, staff, and board operations issues, Ms. Butler represents her clients in litigation matters including student residency, discipline, and special education hearings, staff tenure proceedings, employment discrimination matters, grievance arbitrations, unfair practice proceedings, and bid/contracting disputes. She regularly appears before the Department of Education, the Office of Administrative Law, the Public Employees Relations Commission, the Division on Civil Rights, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the various state and federal courts.

Ms. Butler is a Trustee of the New Jersey Association of School Attorneys and is a member of the National Council of School Attorneys. She is a member of the New Jersey State Bar Association’s Labor and Employment Law Section and School Law Committee.

Ms. Butler frequently lectures and provides in-service training on various education and employment issues. Recent presentation topics include: Student Dress Codes; Student Discipline; Expulsion and Alternative Education; Residency Issues; Student Records; Student Surveys; IEP Preparation; Discipline of the Special Education Child; Avoiding/Surviving Due Process; Section 504; New Jersey Family Leave and Federal Family and Medical Leave; and Sexual Harassment.

She served a judicial clerkship with the Honorable Clarkson S. Fisher, former Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey. Prior to joining Schenck, Price, Smith & King, LLP in 1996, Ms. Butler was a partner with the West Orange firm of Young, Dimiero & Sayovitz.

After attending Penn State University for two years, Ms. Butler graduated from John Jay College of Criminal Justice, summa cum laude, in 1984, with a degree in Criminal Justice. She attended the Columbus School of Law of the Catholic University of America, graduating in 1987.

Bar Admissions:

• New Jersey (1987)
• U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey (1987)
• U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (1988)