Al Lindseth, a member of Sutherland’s Litigation Practice Group, has earned a national reputation representing and advising state and local school authorities in the resolution of complex disputes involving their obligations under state and federal constitutions. For the past 25 years, he has worked closely with lawyers from the offices of the State Attorney General in states as diverse as Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New York and North Dakota in important school finance and educational adequacy cases bringing them to successful conclusions through litigation, negotiations, legislative action or a combination of strategies. As a result of these representations, Al has a deep understanding of the wide range of legal, social science, economic and education issues arising in such cases, as well as the expert witnesses typically involved in them, many of whom he has encountered in more than one case.
Al is a member of West Point’s famous Class of 1966 and served four years as an Army officer in airborne-ranger units. A highly decorated veteran of the Vietnam war, he commanded paratroop units during the heaviest fighting of the war before returning to become an instructor at and spokesman for the U.S. Army Ranger School. After leaving the Army, he graduated from Harvard Law School and joined Sutherland, where he has spent his entire legal career.
REPRESENTATIVE EXPERIENCE Al’s extensive representative experience includes:
- Representing the State of New York in a seven-month trial challenging the adequacy of the New York City public schools and the constitutionality of the state’s $12 billion budget.
- Cross-examining the plaintiffs’ expert witnesses in the landmark Sheff v. O’Neill adequacy case in Connecticut.
- Representing many large school districts including Savannah, Georgia; Knoxville, Tennessee; Charleston, South Carolina; Prince George’s County, Maryland; St. Louis, Missouri; Atlanta/Fulton County, Georgia; and several other urban areas, regarding their desegregation obligations, helping to design and gain court approval of major reorganizations.
- Serving as lead counsel in a $150 million antitrust jury trial.
- Serving as lead counsel in a two-week international reinsurance arbitration involving approximately $30 million.
- Serving as lead counsel in a one-month jury trial involving charges of timber fraud and mismanagement against his client, a large forest products company.
RECENT PUBLICATIONS
- Co-author, “Many Schools Are Still Inadequate, Now What?” Education Next (Fall 2009)
- Commentator, “School funds not courts’ job,” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (June 28, 2009)
- Author, “We must use education dollars wisely,” Atlanta Business Chronicle (June 26, 2009)
- Commentator, “Featured Book: Schoolhouses, Courthouses, and Statehouses,” The Jim Bohannon Show (June 22, 2009)
- Co-author, “California needs to make wiser use of school funding,” San Francisco Chronicle (June 17, 2009)
- Co-author, “The Effectiveness of Court-Ordered Funding of Schools,” AEI - Education Outlook (May 2009)
- Co-author, Schoolhouses, Courthouses and Statehouses: Resolving the Achievement-Funding Puzzle in America’s Public Schools, Princeton University Press (Spring 2009)
- Chapter Author, “The Legal Backdrop to Adequacy,” Courting Failure: How School Finance Lawsuits Exploit Judges’ Good Intentions and Harm Our Children, Eric A. Hanushek, Ed., Education Next Books, Stanford University, Stanford, California (2006)
- Chapter Author, “Legal Issues Related to School Funding/Desegregation,” in School Desegregation in the 21st Century, Christine H. Rossell, David J. Armor and Herbert J. Walberg, Eds., Praeger, Westport, Connecticut (2002)
- Frequent Commentor, issues related to school finance
- Op-ed Author, publications including Education Week and USA Today
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