One month after Joey Gilbert Law Firm announced their resignation as legal counsel for the Douglas County School District, the school board approved a contract to obtain Ryan Russell of Allison MacKenzie Law Firm during Tuesday’s meeting.
The board voted unanimously to approve the contract.
Gilbert’s firm resigned as the board’s attorney in December 2024 after 18 months.
Gilbert Law replaced Maupin, Cox & LeGoy in July 2023, who represented the Douglas County School District since 1995.
Allison Mackenzie has been providing services for more than 50 years across Nevada in a variety of law practices including education law. Russell has been with the firm for 21 years specializing in education, business, administrative, healthcare, litigations and mediation.
He currently represents four school districts in Nevada, including Carson City.
Superintendent Frankie Alvarado said he met Russell last fall during a Nevada Association of School Board’s conference, where he and a few board trustees heard Russell’s presentation on ethics.
“I was very impressed with that training and at the time the need for new legal counsel arose and I reached out to Russell to see if he would be interested,” Alvarado during Tuesday’s meeting.
In addition to Russell, Alvarado said he contacted another firm the district does business with out of Carson City, and he received an inquiry from another firm.
“I had the opportunity to have a conversation with each of those firms, just to see what their experience was,” Alvarado said. “We were looking for a firm who had education experience as desired by the Board of Education and which was in the best interest of the district.”
After Alvarado met with each of those firms, a meeting was held with three of the board trustees; Yvonne Wagstaff, David Burns, and Markus Zinke, to hear from Russell and give the trustees an opportunity to ask him questions which then led to the placement of a contract on Tuesday’s agenda.
According to the contract for Russell, all work performed would be billed at an hourly rate of $325 per hour which is different than previous law firms.
Joey Gilbert Law Firm, with no experience in education law, charged a monthly retainer of $7,500 and billed at $325 per hour for work beyond it. Prior to Gilbert, Maupin, Cox and LeGoy, who specializes in education law, had a $5,000 monthly retainer and billed $225 per hour for work beyond it.
“The contract is consistent with the four districts the firm represents, there are no retainers and no minimum payments,” said Russell during Tuesday’s meeting.
Russell also said with the guidance for producing clear and precise agendas to help the board conduct meetings effectively, it would not be necessary for legal counsel to attend every meeting, but he would still be available to answer questions should the need arise.