In April, the California Court of Appeal overturned the
trial court's ruling in Vergara v. California [i], in which a group of families had challenged the constitutionality of state laws governing teacher
tenure [ii](California state law automatically grants
tenure to teachers
after sixteen months, provides extra due process protections to teachers over and above those available to other state workers, and requires schools to use seniority rather than competency in layoff decisions.)
I had no idea I would be operating my own law practice shortly
after law school, but thankfully my partner and I have been collecting research and
trial practice resources since early in our law school
tenure.