DCSD Outside Counsel Guidelines (March 2025) - January 12, 2026 - DCSD Board Meeting Archive

Guidelines for Outside legal counsel
The DeKalb County School District

Purpose and Goals

The DeKalb County School District’s Chief Legal Officer (“CLO”), assisted by
DCSD’s attorneys and legal staff, is responsible for managing and overseeing all
legal matters arising from or pertaining to the operations of the DeKalb County
School District (“DCSD” or the “District”). The purpose of these Guidelines is to set
forth general principles governing the retention of outside legal counsel by DCSD
and standards for legal services provided to the District by outside legal counsel.1
T he DSCD Office of Legal Affairs (“OLA”) expects a cooperative and collaborative
relationship with outside legal counsel with the goal of serving the District’s mission
in the most ethical, effective and cost efficient manner possible.

Guidelines

These guidelines provide principles to be followed by outside legal counsel.
Where outside legal counsel may consider it necessary to depart from these
principles, they must first obtain permission from the DCSD Chief Legal Officer or
the DCSD attorney assigned to the matter. At the beginning of an engagement,
the DCSD attorney who is to be consulted on all substantive aspects of the
representation will be identified.

1. Only the Superintendent, the CLO or the DCSD Board of Education may
retain outside legal counsel on behalf of the District. Unless otherwise
approved by the CLO, all communications from outside legal counsel with
District employees must be through or jointly with the CLO and/or the
DCSD attorney assigned to the matter.2 Where an outside lawyer is given
permission to communicate directly with a District employee on a specific
matter, a DCSD lawyer must be copied on all emails and correspondence.

1 In accordance with DCSD Board Policies, the DCSD Board of Education (“BOE”) has
utilized a Board Attorney or General Counsel. Attorneys working in the capacity of Board Attorney
or General Counsel and who are retained to provide legal advice to the DCSD BOE shall comply
with the Board Policies pertaining to Board Attorney and/or General Counsel.

2 Legal Advice to the DCSD BOE on BOE-related legal matters by the Board Attorney or
General Counsel (excluding DCSD litigation, DCSD legal matters or legal advice to District Staff)
does not need to be shared with the CLO or DCSD attorneys unless otherwise directed by the
DCSD BOE or Superintendent.

Effective 3/21/2025
2. The CLO determines the scope of outside legal counsel’s role and seeks
outside legal counsel who works collaboratively with the OLA. We expect
outside legal counsel to consult with the CLO and/or DCSD supervising
attorney on all aspects of the representation, such as strategy, tactics and
staffing.

3. Where a firm is engaged by the OLA on a regular basis, we expect that the
firm will provide a mutually agreed to relationship partner who, will be
knowledgeable about and coordinate the representation of DCSD by the
firm. This includes assuring that each lawyer involved in DCSD
assignments is aware of other assignments (past and current) handled by
the firm that might bear on the lawyer’s work, reviewing bills for accuracy
and fairness before they are sent to DCSD and serving as a person to whom
the CLO can go if there are any concerns about the representation.

4. Outside legal counsel should acknowledge all legal assignments in a written
letter. Such acknowledgment should include a cost estimate to accomplish
the assignment. We realize that with some matters, particularly litigation, it
can be difficult to provide estimates. In significant matters, estimates may
be given for various stages of a matter.

5. Unless otherwise agreed to, copies of all briefs, pleadings, motion papers,
correspondence, work product and internal memoranda of law relating to
DCSD matters must be provided to the designated DCSD counsel assigned
to the matter. Copies of correspondence and all documents received from
opposing counsel or counsel for other parties should also be provided to
the designated DCSD counsel assigned to the matter. The DCSD counsel
should be provided the opportunity to review draft legal papers prior to filing
or otherwise sending them out unless he/she explicitly agrees otherwise.

6. In litigated matters, the use of alternative dispute resolution such as
mediation and arbitration should be actively considered and reviewed with
the assigned DCSD counsel. No settlement offers in litigated or non-
litigated matters may be made without prior authorization of the DCSD
Board of Education and/or Superintendent (as required) along with proper
advance notice to the CLO or assigned DCSD counsel.

7. Outside legal counsel may not make public statements or comments to the
media concerning DCSD legal matters unless specifically authorized by the
DCSD Board of Education, the Superintendent or the CLO.

8. Outside legal counsel may not consult with government officials or lawyers
about DCSD matters, even on an anonymous no-name basis, unless
specifically authorized by the DCSD Board of Education, the
Superintendent or the CLO.

Effective 3/21/2025
9. We require all information outside legal counsel learns about DCSD in the
course of representing DCSD to be treated as strictly confidential. This
includes, for example, not responding to inquiries, including from other
lawyers in the firm who are not representing DCSD, about what the
approaches or philosophies of DCSD or its personnel are with respect to
matters or settlements.

10. Outside legal counsel agrees that in-house counsel in the DCSD OLA, and
those working under their direction, enjoy the privileges (including attorney-
client and work product privilege) and immunities of counsel as governed
by U.S. and Georgia law without regard to choice of law provisions. Outside
legal counsel further agrees that actions and positions it takes will support,
to the greatest extent legally appropriate, the privileges and immunities of
in-house counsel in DCSD OLA and those working under their direction,
unless the CLO consents otherwise.

11. The CLO never provides prospective waivers of conflicts or potential
conflicts of interest. Requests for waivers of any conflicts of interest will be
considered by the CLO only on a case-by-case basis. All such waivers must
be in writing (email is acceptable). In no case will a waiver be granted for a
firm to be in an adversarial position to DCSD in any litigated or contested
matter before any court, administrative agency or ADR body. Where a
waiver is given, we expect that the firm will, unless we expressly agree to
the contrary in writing, maintain an ethical wall so that lawyers involved with
DCSD matters are not involved in the representation constituting a conflict
or potential conflict of interest and the lawyers involved with DCSD maintain
the confidence of DCSD as set forth in “9” above vis a vis the lawyers in the
firm that are or may be adverse to DCSD.

12. Billing:

(a) Bills should clearly identify the attorney performing the task and
identify the specific task performed. For traditional hourly billing, as
a not-for-profit governmental organization, the DCSD expects a
discount from the firm’s customary rates in an amount not less than
the highest discount the firm provides to other not-for-profit
organizations that are not pro bono clients. Billing should be by one-
tenth hour. DCSD looks favorably on alternatives to traditional hourly
billing such as task-based and fixed fee arrangements, and law firms
that employ such arrangements. Outside legal counsel should be
open to accepting or proposing such alternative arrangements. If
hourly rates are used, the rates are fixed for the duration of the
assignment and may never exceed the hours worked on DCSD
matters times the applicable hourly rates.

(b) Lawyers assigned to a matter must be identified at the start of the
engagement. Unless otherwise approved by the CLO, no more than
Effective 3/21/2025
two lawyers should be assigned to a matter. If, during the course of
a matter, a lawyer must be substituted or added, the DCSD should
not be billed for the time spent by the new lawyer “getting up to
speed.”

(c) No more than one lawyer should bill for an in-office conference.
Unless otherwise approved by the CLO, only one lawyer should bill
for attendance at depositions, court appearances, negotiation
sessions, meetings or settlement conferences.

(d) Billing for preparation for internal firm meetings should be avoided.
Billings should identify the internal DCSD contact requesting the
work. Multiple lawyers within the firm should generally not bill for
review of the same document unless a partner is reviewing the work
of an associate. Multiple attorneys billing for preparation of the same
report should be avoided. Billing for review of internal reports or
memoranda of other attorneys within the firm should be avoided.

(e) Billings for deposition appearances should reflect the start and end
time for the deposition.

(f) Billing for travel time should be identified as “travel time.” Billing for
local travel time and for travel to and from the offices of DCSD is
prohibited.

(g) There should be no billing for summer associates, legal interns or
time spent by paralegals or assistants on “file maintenance” or “file
organization” or the like except in actual preparation for a scheduled
hearing or trial.

(h) Invoices should be sent on a monthly basis, within the first ten (20) days
of the following month and should be transmitted via e-mail to the
Chair of the DCSD Board of Education, the DCSD Superintendent
and the CLO (or its designee) in adobe.pdf format. All bills must be
approved by the Board Chair, the Superintendent and the CLO. All
monthly billings should be included on the invoices for the prior
month. Late submitted invoices or billings for periods other than the
prior month may be rejected. Previously submitted invoices should
not be resubmitted in subsequent billings unless specifically
requested by the Board Chair, the Superintendent or the CLO.

13. Expenses:

(a) DCSD will reimburse the firm for actual ordinary and necessary
expenses other than expenses related to local travel. A ir travel must
be coach class. We expect that good judgment will be exercised,
particularly with respect to meals, hotels and other expenses.
Effective 3/21/2025
(b) Photocopying will be reimbursed at actual costs, expected to be no
more than ten cents per page and faxes at no more than twenty-five
cents per page. Any extensive computerized legal research (in
excess of $500.00 per month) must be approved in advance by the
CLO or assigned DCSD counsel.

(c) The retention of outside consultants, vendors or experts, and their
rates of compensation, must be approved in advance by the CLO.

(d) Overnight delivery services (e.g., UPS, FedEx) and hand delivery
should be used only when necessary for time-sensitive matters or
imminent deadlines.

14. Training of DCSD Personnel.

(a) Training of DCSD personnel must be approved in writing by the CLO
or a designated member of the DCSD in-house legal team in
advance of any scheduled training.

(b) Outside counsel shall submit a budget for any proposed training of
DCSD personnel which must be approved in advance of the training
by the CLO or a designated member of the DCSD in-house legal
team.

(c) Outside counsel must submit copies of all written materials or
presentations to be presented at any training of DCSD personnel to
the CLO or a designated member of the DCSD in-house legal team
in advance of any scheduled training for review and approval.

Effective 3/21/2025

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