When Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher won a ruling earlier this month that California’s teacher tenure laws are unconstitutional, the firm predicted a steady stream of copycat suits would follow. Sure enough, now Jay Lefkowitz and his colleagues at Kirkland & Ellis are taking up the mantle in New York.
As The Wall Street Journal first reported, Lefkowitz is planing to bring a lawsuit challenging New York’s job protections for teachers, arguing that they undermine the right to education enshrined in the state’s constitution. The suit, which Kirkland is handling pro bono, will be filed later this summer in New York Supreme Court in Albany. Kirkland’s clients are Partnership for Educational Justice, an advocacy group founded by former CNN anchorwoman Campbell Brown, and six New York schoolchildren.
