Katz Receives Award for Distinguished Career Achievement in School Law
News Release
Hershey, PA – Citing his dedication and countless contributions to school law, the Pennsylvania School Board Solicitors Association (PSBSA) presented Ellis H. Katz of Sweet, Stevens, Katz & Williams with the 2019 President’s Award for Distinguished Career Achievement at the Solicitors Association School Law Workshop at the Hershey Hotel on October 16, 2019.
Each year, the association honors a practitioner who has contributed to Pennsylvania school law through achievement at the highest level of professional accomplishment, has donated remarkable energy and talent to the association, its members and Pennsylvania public schools, and whose generosity of spirit, expertise and fellowship reflect and promote the association's strong tradition of collegiality.
“Ellis Katz has devoted his career to the advancement of school law,” said Andrea C. Parenti, PSBSA president. “His devotion to the solicitors association is clear not only because of his professional accomplishments, but in finding time to attend and speak at the conferences of the Pennsylvania School Board Association and serving as its president. We congratulate him on this well-deserved honor.”
Katz has represented over 100 school districts in Pennsylvania in matters ranging from day-to-day solicitor work to complex federal appellate work and litigation. He has participated in hundreds of contract negotiations and bargaining sessions, advancing important issues including coordinated bargaining and subcontracting. He has been successful in establishing favorable rulings and precedent that help the managerial school law community.
An authority on both private and public sector labor law, Katz also has lectured widely and is frequently published in national and regional labor law journals. He has taught graduate classes in labor relations at Penn State University and he served as assistant counsel for the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board from 1981 to 1983. Katz is a former managing partner of Sweet Stevens who is now “Of Counsel” to the firm.
Sweet, Stevens, Katz & Williams, LLP was formed in 1995 by nine experienced education lawyers who created the first private law practice in Pennsylvania dedicated entirely to Education Law. Since then, the firm has grown to 20 attorneys who represent over 290 school and municipal entities as Solicitors or as Special Counsel in more than 50 counties throughout Pennsylvania.