School attorney addresses billing

In the first five months with Joey Gilbert Law, the Douglas County School District has nearly topped the yearly total paid for Maupin, Cox & LeGoy Law Firm.

During the Jan. 9 school board meeting newly appointed school Board Vice President Linda Gilkerson said to date, the district has been charged $210,162 for legal services with Gilbert since July.

“During the previous five years, prior to the hiring of Gilbert, the highest one year charged by Maupin, Cox & LeGoy was $235,000 and that was 2020-21 during COVID,” said Gilkerson. “So, we are about $25,000 away from topping that.”

Gilbert said a lot of the cost is due to the litigation surrounding public record requests.

“It is important to note that the last five months have been a constant battle, which is not the norm for this position and will not always be the case,” Gilbert said. “This is a full-out litigation, which is extremely costly and required me to hire outside counsel to assist in the matter, which is normal for school districts to do when faced with litigations. We have multiple hearings on this issue, and it is still going on. We have no choice but to defend the district in this matter.”

A lawsuit was filed Aug. 14, 2023, in Douglas County District Court seeking to learn if trustees Susan Jansen, Doug Englekirk, Dave Burns and Katherine Dickerson were deliberating on a group chat to play out pre-planned and coordinated efforts during board meetings.

Allegations include who would be board president; the firing of Maupin, Cox & LeGoy and hiring new legal counsel; and any communications regarding school board business from May 15, 2023 to August.

An evidentiary hearing is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. March 27 in Douglas County District Court with Thomas Gregory.

Gilbert said the school district receives public record requests on a weekly basis.

“This is an unprecedented amount,” he said. “We are trying to gather data to compare the public record requests Maupin, Cox & LeGoy received during their tenure so that we can put this into perspective for the people who are actually concerned about the district’s spending.”

Maupin, Cox & LeGoy represented the Douglas County School District from 1995 to 2023. 

Gilbert said the costs, does not include the monthly meetings that go about 8-10 hours, the multiple closed session meetings, the work necessary to prepare for the meetings, and providing general legal advice to the board and district daily.

“As I stated before, that won’t always be the case,” Gilbert said. “I’m hopeful that in the very near future, the time I am needed and therefore, my monthly bill will normalize and be much closer to what the district is used to.”

During the Jan. 9, Douglas County School Board meeting, Gilkerson broke down the bill, requesting more transparency on the items.

She pointed to billing for general board administration including emails, phone calls and reviews from the board, school board meetings and agenda preparation, an education discrimination case, public records requests and open meeting law complaints without revealing any specific attorney-client privileges. She asked why only some of those things were redacted and what was the purpose of the charges in the first place.

 “Attorney-client privilege is an important safeguard in the legal system as it promotes open and honest communication between the individual and their advisors,” Gilbert told The Record-Courier. “It encourages clients to provide all necessary information to their lawyers or other professional, enabling them to provide the most effective advice and representation. Privilege also upholds the fundamental principle that individuals should be able to seek legal advice without the fear of their adversaries obtaining sensitive or confidential information.”

When in terms of the district the privilege extends to the administration of DCSD as well as the Board of Trustees, as a whole.

“Regarding Joey Gilbert Law’s monthly invoices to the district, our concern is not that the public have the information, this is not about transparency for us, but about preserving the attorney-client privilege surrounding this work product for our client, DCSD,” said Gilbert.

He said unless waived by the client, in this case the board, whether explicitly or impliedly privileges cannot be clawed back for that specific document.

“Board members have a duty to maintain the confidentially of privileged information and they may be in breach of this duty if they choose to disclose privileged information,” said Gilbert. “The Board may vote to waive the privilege as it pertains to the monthly invoices or any other document that is covered by the attorney-client privilege, but they have chosen not to do so at this time.”

Joey Gilbert was hired as the Douglas County School district attorney in July after the School Board Trustees voted 4-3 in favor of terminating their contract with Maupin, Cox & LeGoy.

“I took this job because I care about the children of Northern Nevada and I care about its residents,” said Gilbert. “I grew up here, this is my home. This is not about a political move for me. I was hired by the board to do my job as a lawyer and that is what I am doing.”