Sidley Wins Bid for Supreme Court Appeal—With Client
Sidley Austin was one of several law firms competing for a chance to represent an Oregon school district seeking U.S. Supreme Court review of an education ruling.
The school district’s lawyer, Andrea Hungerford, told the Am Law Daily that several law firms e-mailed her with offers to help after the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against her client in April. The decision required the Forest Grove School District to pay the cost of sending a special education student to a private school.
Hungerford ended up interviewing three law firms on the phone. She chose Sidley because of its expertise and because its low price allowed the school to pursue the case, the Am Law Daily story says. Sidley offered to write the cert petition pro bono and to charge a maximum fee of $60,000.
The case concerns a federal requirement that public schools reimburse students for the cost of a private education if they can’t receive an appropriate education in public schools. At issue is whether students must enroll in public school special ed programs before they seek reimbursement for private school tuition.
The Supreme Court deadlocked 4-4 on the issue last year when Justice Anthony M. Kennedy recused himself in a case involving a school in New York.
