About me
Kathryn Meola provides legal representation and general counsel advice to public agencies, community college districts, K-12 school districts and county offices of education in all aspects of labor and employment matters, Board governance, open meeting laws, ethics and conflicts of interest, California public records act requests, labor negotiations, PERB hearings, arbitration hearings, administrative hearings, certificated and classified layoffs, certificated dismissal hearings and civil litigation. Ms. Meola also practices special education, 504 hearings, and due process hearings.
Prior to joining AALRR, Ms. Meola was General Counsel and Director of its Education Legal Alliance (ELA) for the California School Boards Association (CSBA). She was the first woman to serve as General Counsel in the organization’s 88-year history. As General Counsel, Ms. Meola provided legal counsel to CSBA’s leadership and led the ELA, a consortium of school districts, county offices of education and regional occupational centers/programs that pooled resources to pursue and defend public education interests in the courts and before state agencies.
Prior to joining CSBA, Ms. Meola was a Chief Deputy County Counsel in San Mateo County where she served as general counsel for the San Mateo Community College District and the County Superintendent of Schools along with several other school districts in the County. In addition, Ms. Meola supervised the County’s public safety departments, and led the County's School Deputy and Special Education Deputy teams. In this role, she also conducted ten certificated dismissal hearings, special education due process hearings and layoff administrative hearings.
Prior to the County Counsel’s Office, she was a Deputy District Attorney for 12 years where she prosecuted homicide, sexual assault and domestic violence cases and conducted 53 jury trials to verdict and handled hundreds of court trials and preliminary hearings.
