Imprint Legal Group

"Just so you know, it's NOT that common, it DOESN'T happen to every guy, and it IS a big deal!" Our team at Imprint Legal Group is celebrating Founder & Lead Project Attorney Jessica Heiser, a 2023 honoree of the Diversity in Law Awards by Indiana Lawyer and Indianapolis Business Journal. Jessica is a lifelong advocate of a more diverse and inclusive legal profession, which can provide better advice to organizational clients trying to keep out of legal trouble. In her interview, Jessica was asked "Tell us why you opened your firm to intentionally contract with underrepresented groups?" "Imprint Legal Group is a law and consulting firm built on disruptively equitable principles, like 90% of every dollar goes directly to the individual who did the work. We specialize in protected class work for organizations — not trying to create change with one plaintiff’s lawsuit at a time, but marrying legal compliance and culture to proactively create inclusive schools, businesses and nonprofits. We support general counsel and in-house counsel on those tricky, special situations involving race, sex, generational differences, and LGBTQIA+ issues. The vision came first; the diverse talent flocked. All nine of us (lawyers, DEI experts, professors, therapists) embody some historically excluded identity: Black, transgender, Muslim, gay, disabled, single parent, immigrant, queer, women. I don’t think there’s a similar-sized law firm out there with this combination of lived experience and professional experience." Read more - including the highbrow conversation the Imprint Legal Group team had at our awards ceremony table - here: https://lnkd.in/gCdDt7qK

I came to the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights (OCR) as a young wannabe education lawyer. My job was to investigate alleged civil rights violations in schools. I had just left teaching middle school and I wanted to explore how to use the law to make schools more inclusive for ALL students. My first civil rights investigation was about a medical student with a disability who needed accommodations to pass an emergency medicine course. I came to discover that the vast majority of discrimination in schools - year after year - was based on disability, more so than race, sex, gender, national origin, etc. I have worked for, or fought against, OCR for almost fifteen years. Some of the investigations drove me (and my clients) up the wall and lasted WAY too long. But I never met an uncivil or incompetent lawyer there. In fact, most of them had given up lucrative private practices to work in public service. Most of OCR was unceremoniously gutted today. If you think the states can handle this, you’re wrong. Most states lack the legal protections provided under federal law, and even states with robust legal protections have understaffed state agencies to process the deluge of complaints that will inevitably flow to states after the federal OCR is gutted and untrusted. The simple fact is that a lot of illegal discrimination against our most vulnerable students will go unchecked now. From a lifelong education lawyer and advocate for better schools, please join me and #SpeakUpforEd.

Since the election, we have conducted several workshops for non-profits and education leaders on continuing their work in the face of challenges. Grateful for the participants who provide feedback!

Thanks to Chalkbeat Indiana for featuring Imprint Legal Group Founder Jessica Heiser's thoughts on President Trump's love of Indiana school laws: https://lnkd.in/eEyuz7tx

Schools are increasingly worried about ICE enforcement on school property. We've been talking with Imprint Legal Group clients about the constraints of FERPA in sharing ANY student information with immigration enforcement. National Immigration Law Center has a great breakdown of an immigration warrant/subpoena (which ICE almost always uses) and a "a judicial order or lawfully issued subpoena" (which allows for FERPA exceptions and ICE almost never uses). More at https://lnkd.in/gDv6dznK. FERPA citation: 34 CFR § 99.31(a)(9)(i) and (ii)

I usually do media interviews in my dark, dusty office. But I needed the power of my Mexican tapestry behind me when I did an interview today about how school leaders can navigate mass deportation orders and keep students safe under the new administration. In law school, I studied indigenous rights in Chiapas, Mexico, a place known for Zapatista resistance fighters and beautiful textiles. This tapestry is not only a fond memory of those good times, but reminding myself how many people are out there - all over the country and world - fighting for good. Keep. Fighting. Mariyam Hussain David Zwaska Natalie Long Leonard Cavise Davina Campos Sahiry Rodriguez-Domingos Bret Bender Stella Hirsch, LSW, Esq. Nicole Roth Kendra Scheuerlein Kelli Fennell Joseph Cavise Katherine Faydash Cynthia Fernandez

What’s the MOST important thing to remember in the next 4 years, according to our civil rights lawyers and DEIJ professionals? https://lnkd.in/gWt9EjKX

The irony of revising a draft IEP for a special education client (particularly the extracurricular section) while you’re sitting in a different school on a Saturday morning waiting for your own child’s extracurricular practice to be over…

??Good summary of #TitleIX BUT please remember that many states are still subject to protections for LGBTQIA+ students due to federal circuit court cases. If you’re not sure, shoot us an email: [email protected].