Congratulations to the extraordinary legal team of Sam Jackson, Emily Mack, and Larry Giordano who won a major victory for Bethel University against the Tennessee State Board of Education.
The State Board of Education had denied approval of Bethel’s School of Education as an Education Preparation Provider. Sam, Emily and Larry filed an action in the Chancery Court of Davidson County, contending that the Board’s attempted revocation of its approval of Bethel’s School of Education as an Education Preparation Provider was invalid because the Board’s policy underlying the decision had never been properly promulgated in accordance with the Tennessee Uniform Administrative Procedures Act.
The Davidson County Chancery Court agreed and ordered that Bethel University’s School of Education as an Education Preparation Provider be restored to its status before the Tennessee State Board of Education attempted to deny Bethel’s “EPP” approval using an invalid Board policy.
We congratulate the Jackson-Mack-Giordano legal team on their great victory
Samuel L. Jackson is a shareholder who practices in the areas of employment and education law in a variety of legal matters, including employment of licensed and classified employees, employee contracts, employee and student discipline, employee and student rights, special education and disability accommodation, First Amendment issues, sexual harassment and civil rights matters, desegregation, tort liability, school finance and taxation, and school construction. Mr. Jackson is also experienced in general defense litigation, product liability, labor and employment law, transportation, and workers’ compensation law.
Emily Mack has extensive experience advising businesses on issues unique to the employment law arena, including drafting non-compete agreements, employee handbooks and policies, and counseling employers on a wide variety of legal matters including employee discipline, workplace investigations, leaves of absence, and terminations. Emily also has considerable experience defending public and private employers in federal and state court, and administrative proceedings before federal and state agencies, involving claims for wrongful discharge, retaliation, discrimination, harassment, arising from a variety of laws.
Shareholder, Supreme Court Rule 31 Mediator, and law firm director Larry Giordano engages in a statewide practice based in Lewis Thomason’s Knoxville office. He is a member and co-chair of both the firm’s Education Law and Health Care Practice Groups. He concentrates the balance of his practice in the areas of business, commercial and complex litigation. His diverse experience includes an unusually wide range of legal issues, both litigation and transactional. He has significant criminal defense experience and has defended multiple cases with simultaneous civil and criminal proceedings. In addition, Mr. Giordano has substantial appellate experience and has argued before the Tennessee Supreme Court, Tennessee Court of Appeals, Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals and the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.