Sweet Stevens to Deliver Legal Session for PA School Administrators at PAPSA Conference
New Britain, PA – Attorneys from Sweet, Stevens, Katz & Williams LLP will present the concluding session of the 2024 Pennsylvania Association of Pupil Service Administrators (PAPSA) conference, continuing a tradition that honors the legacy of one of the firm’s founders. The Paul Stevens Memorial Legal Seminar will take place during PAPSA’s “Pupil Services and School Climate: What’s Your Temperature?” conference at the Inn at Leola Village in Leola, PA, on April 12, 2024, from 8:45 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
For over two decades, attorneys from Sweet Stevens have presented at the conference as a tribute to Paul Stevens, who served as PAPSA’s legal advisor and conducted workshops on pertinent issues until his passing. The Paul Stevens Memorial Law Seminar has become a cornerstone of the conference, consistently garnering top ratings from participants.
The seminar’s morning session will cover legal issues impacting special education, while the afternoon will focus on legal issues impacting pupil services. Five Sweet Stevens attorneys are presenting:
- Partner Jane M. Williams brings close to three decades of experience in special education law and is among the most experienced attorneys currently representing school entities in special education and student matters. She has served as a hearing officer and advisor to school boards in student expulsion matters and provided school district boards with in-service programs concerning special education and pupil services.
- Managing partner Sharon W. Montanye understands the underlying issues that influence special education litigation. Prior to joining the practice of law, she spent nearly a dozen years working in the field of education as a certified teacher, administrator, grant writer, and peer reviewer for both the U.S. Department of Education and the Pennsylvania Department of Education.
- Partner Thomas C. Warner represents Pennsylvania school districts and entities in matters of special education. He also provides in-service training to districts on a variety of matters including the development of defensible special education programming and confidentiality/disclosure issues involving education records.
- Associate Suzanne Pontious is a seasoned litigator in both court and administrative proceedings. Prior to joining the firm, she worked as a solicitor for public entities for a private law firm and was also a deputy city solicitor for the City of Philadelphia.
- Associate Kalani Linnell advises clients in matters involving special education, student civil rights, and operations/practices. In addition to her work in education law, she was also an investigator and hearing officer for a consulting firm that advised educational institutions in major areas of legal compliance.
PAPSA is the only organization in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania specifically devoted to issues concerning pupil services programs in schools. Members of the organization have supervisory or administrative responsibility in fields such as counseling, health, psychology, home and school visitation, social work, special education, gifted education and student assistance. For more information, visit papsa-web.org.
Sweet, Stevens, Katz & Williams, LLP was formed in 1995 by nine experienced education lawyers who created the first private law practice in Pennsylvania dedicated entirely to Education Law. Since then, the firm has grown to 25 attorneys who represent over 290 school and municipal entities as Solicitors or as Special Counsel in more than 50 counties throughout Pennsylvania.