About Us

SWEET, STEVENS, KATZ & WILLIAMS LLP a registered limited liability partnership, was founded in 1995 when nine lawyers left a traditional Bucks County law firm to form a new law firm offering services exclusively in the areas of Education and Employment law.  We have since further expanded into representation of municipalities.  With Offices in Bucks and Luzerne Counties, the firm limits its practice to education, employment and municipal issues.

Statewide in its scope, the firm’s attorneys have represented over 290 schools, school districts, vo-techs, intermediate units and municipal entities, serving either as Solicitors or as special counsel in more than 50 counties throughout Pennsylvania. In the special counsel role, firm members have served school entities in cooperation with or as an additional resource to the local Solicitor, providing experience in complex areas of education and labor law in which specialized assistance is needed.  In the Solicitor role, firm members serve as general counsel to school districts, vocational schools, intermediate units and municipalities.  The firm currently serves as Special Counsel to 212  school districts and as Solicitor to 20 school districts, 4 vocational schools, and 3 intermediate units.  Additionally, the firm as represented a number of municipalities in labor matters and continues to represent them as special counsel or solicitor.

Our firm consists of seventeen attorneys, seven partners, nine associate attorneys and one of counsel attorney.  By virtue of our extensive experience we believe that we are able to offer services that are unique and efficient.  The resumes of the firm's lawyers are included under the Our Attorneys section of the website.

Although each member of our team of attorneys concentrates most particularly in one or more specific areas of education, municipal or employment law, it is the goal of SWEET, STEVENS, KATZ & WILLIAMS LLP that the various attorneys be as interchangeable as possible. That policy is intended to ensure that when an answer is needed "right now," there will be at least one of the team available at all times to provide a prompt response.

SWEET, STEVENS, KATZ & WILLIAMS LLP recognizes that today's school or municipal administrator needs timely, understandable advice that reflects the current state of education, employment and municipal laws. By keeping up on a daily basis in those specific areas, the firm's attorneys are frequently able to respond quickly without need for time-consuming research. By constantly doing our homework and by emphasizing practical, understandable advice, we feel that we are able to deliver our services with maximum efficiency.

It is the mission of SWEET, STEVENS, KATZ & WILLIAMS LLP to deliver the highest quality legal services as ethically, effectively and efficiently as possible, and to provide those services with a primary focus on collaboration, both internally and with clients, for practical solutions. SWEET, STEVENS, KATZ & WILLIAMS LLP is dedicated to the principle of continual improvement of legal services through innovation, integrity, loyalty to each other and to our clients and continuing research and pursuit of knowledge in areas relevant to our practice.

SWEET, STEVENS, KATZ & WILLIAMS LLP offers proactive services including Act 48 qualified or other seminar and in-service presentations whether for a small group such as supervisors, or an entire staff or part thereof, at a reasonable cost. For seminars and inservices, we charge a flat amount for making such a presentation.

We also offer “pool counsel” services. The concept of the “pool consultation agreement” on non-adversarial matters allows our clients in the right circumstances to use alternative funding sources, such as ACCESS or IDEA flow-through monies, that would not be available to pay for representation in adversarial, or disputed matters. The exact scope of services contained in each agreement or plan may vary. The “pool counsel” covers the following types of services:

• Telephone advice and consultation concerning issues and matters that have not become “adversarial”
• E-mail opinions concerning issues arising in non-adversarial matters, with opinions that do not contain personally-identifiable student information and do not disclose client confidences (often distributed to all “pool” clients)
• Policy review and development, form review and development; policies, guidelines and forms are often distributed to “pool” clients
• Review and revisions in non-adversarial matters; sample language and suggestions often distributed to all “pool” clients
• On-site trainings and in-services, limited to a certain amount/frequency, together with written training materials (the latter often distributed to all “pool” clients in digital form)
• On-site meetings and consultations, limited to a certain amount/frequency per year
• Collective advocacy before Congress, the General Assembly, state and federal Departments of Education, for change in statutes and regulations affecting special education and student services