Maryland School Law Deskbook

John R. Woolums is the Director of Governmental Relations with the Maryland Association of Boards of Education. He has been responsible for conducting the Association's state and federal lobbying activities on behalf of Maryland’s twenty-four boards of education since 2001. John is a 1995 graduate of the University of Maryland School of Law and is a member of the Maryland Bar, Maryland State Bar Association, and national and Maryland Council of School Attorneys. John is a 1987 graduate of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. After graduation from Miami University, John worked for five years as a legislative aide to U.S. Senator Barbara Mikulski. Upon graduating from law school, he worked with a Washington, D.C. law firm in 1996 and as committee counsel to the Maryland House of Delegates' Environmental Matters Committee in 1997.

Prior to joining the Maryland Association of Boards of Education, John was the associate director of the Maryland Association of Counties from 1998 to 2001.

Debra Yerg Daniel is the Director of Legal and Policy Services for the Maryland Association of Boards of Education (MABE) and is the administrator of the MABE Legal Services Association. She is a graduate of the George Washington University Law School and has been admitted to practice before the Maryland State Bar, the Federal District Court for the District of Maryland, and the United States Supreme Court. She is a member of the National Council of School Attorneys and the Maryland Council of Local School Board Attorneys. Prior to joining MABE, she served as the City Attorney for the City of Rockville, Maryland, and as an Associate General Counsel for the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission. She began her legal career as a judicial law clerk for the Honorable Graydon S. McKee, III, of the Prince George's County Circuit Court. Both of her daughters attended, and graduated from, Maryland public schools and one of them is now a Maryland public high school math teacher.

Judith S. Bresler is a partner at the law firm of Carney, Kelehan, Bresler, Bennett & Scherr, LLP, representing local school boards and superintendents in a variety of matters, and an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University teaching school law. She received her undergraduate degree from the College of Education, University of Maryland, and her juris doctor degree from Washington College of Law, American University, in Washington, D.C. She is a frequent speaker on school law issues and past President of the Maryland Council of School Attorneys as well as a member of the National Council of School Board Attorneys.

Rochelle S. Eisenberg is a member of the Maryland law firm of Pessin Katz Law P.A. A graduate of the University of Maryland, College of Education, and the Washington College of Law of The American University, where she was a member of The Law Review, she has practiced education and employment law in the public and private sectors since 1977, representing school systems and employers throughout the State of Maryland. She is a past President of the Maryland Council of School Attorneys, has taught at colleges nd universities, and has provided over 500 seminars on school and employment law. She regularly handles cases involving all areas of education and employment law, including special education, student issues, collective bargaining, wage and hour laws, and employment discrimination.

Edmund J. O'Meally is a member of the law firm of Pessin Katz Law P.A., and teaches school law at Johns Hopkins University, Goucher College, and McDaniel College. A 1984 graduate of the University of Maryland School of Law where he served as Executive Editor of the Maryland Law Review, Mr. O’Meally clerked for the judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit upon his graduation.

Since 1986, Mr. O’Meally has represented public school boards, superintendents, private schools, and colleges in a wide variety of matters including collective bargaining negotiations, employee discipline matters, discrimination and civil rights litigation, First Amendment issues, special education hearings and litigation, construction and procurement issues, Public Information Act and Open Meetings Act compliance, sports injury litigation, student suspensions and expulsions, sexual harassment, and Title IX.