Paul C. Minney

Paul C. Minney, Firm Principal, has represented charter schools in a multitude of critical areas, since the inception of the Charter Schools Act in 1992. After drafting the fifth charter in the state Paul has assisted over 500 charter schools in developing charter petitions, MOU’s, facility use agreements, corporate papers and many other vital charter school documents. His areas of practice also include policy development, governance, Prop. 39 and facilities, revocation, audit defense, dispute resolution, and litigation.

Paul has successfully represented numerous charter schools before the courts and state agencies including the following appellate and trial court decisions: Sequoia School District v. Aurora Charter School (2003) (writ of mandate issued directing District to allocate facilities to the charter school under Prop. 39), BASIS v. Sunol Glen School District (2004) (writ of mandate issued directing the District to fully fund the charter school without offset); Richard Standley v. Office of Administrative Hearings  (2004)(upholding a schools layoff of employee); Ridgecrest Charter School v. Sierra Sands School District (2005); CCSA v San Diego City School District (2005) (lawsuit against the District to enforce charter school facilities rights under Prop. 39); CCSA Green Dot, PUC et al. v LAUSD 2008 (lawsuit against LAUSD to enforce charter school facilities rights under Prop. 39); California School Board Association v Board of Education and Aspire Public Schools (2008) (defending SBE approval of Aspire Statewide Benefit Charter School) ); California School Boards Assoc. v. State Board of Education and Aspire Public Schools (2008) New West Charter School v. Los Angeles Unified School District, Case No. BS 115979 (2008) (writ of mandate directing LAUSD to provide Proposition 39 facilities to New West Charter School and ordering LAUSD to pay damages); California School Boards Assoc. et al v. Cal. Dept of Education and State Board of Education (successfully defending the SBE’s Proposition 39 Implementing Regulations) (2008); MATES Charter School v. Conejo Valley Unified School District (2009) (Writ of Mandate issued to the District declaring MATES to be a conversion school and directing the District to allocate the converted school site to MATES under Proposition 39); Shapiro v. LAUSD/Birmingham Charter High School (writ of mandate by teacher and teachers’ union attempting to overturn District approval of large conversion high school – writ denied); CSBA v. State Board of Education (Prop. 39 regulations)(2011)(successfully sued CSBA for attorney’s fees reimbursement for CCSA); Alfaro v Los Angeles Unified School District (2011) (defending UTLA challenge to allocation of a new school sites under LAUSD PSC 1.0 program); UTLA v. Los Angeles Unified School District (Green Dot)(2011)(Court denied UTLA’s request for a writ of mandate to prevent LAUSD from placing Green Dot charter schools on the Jordan HS and Clay Middle school campuses); Bullis Charter School v. Los Altos School District (case number H035195) (The 6th District Court of Appeals found that the School District violated numerous provisions of Proposition 39 and the implementing regulations in allocating space to the Charter School); Liberty Family Academy v. North Monterey USD (Case No. H034551)(the Sixth District Court of Appeals concluded that the nonprofit corporation that operated the charter school at the time the charter school was revoked has standing to sue the school district for its failure to fully fund the charter school in its last year of operation).

Paul also is a frequent speaker at CCSA sponsored events throughout California and his firm conducts annual workshops in northern and southern California on all aspects of charter school law.

Paul is also a contributing author to the National Charter School Law Deskbook published by Lexis Nexis in association with the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.

Paul continues to be a founding member of the CCSA Legal Defense Fund (an organization designed to provide high quality and comprehensive legal services to all charter schools throughout the state of California) and he was a founding organizer of the National Network of Charter School Attorneys (the goal of this organization is to provide coordinated, effective legal support for charter schools throughout the United States). Paul was also formerly an appointed member of the State Superintendent’s Charter School Advisory Committee. And Paul was also a founding member of the American Inns of Court (Robert G. McGrath, American Inns of Court).

Paul graduated with a B.A. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley and received his J.D. cum laude, from Seattle University School of Law.