About Us

Copyright 2025 by National School Attorneys Association

Frequently Asked Questions about NSAA Membership:

Is NSAA really independent and self-governed? YES! NSAA is not affiliated with any other organization and is being set up as an independent, self-governed 501(c)(3) focused entirely on the needs and interests of school attorneys – all the legal practice support, none of the politics.

NSAA aligned with one political view? NO! Our national organization includes attorneys from around the country, representing school district clients with every conceivable political viewpoint. Even in the so-called “red” or “blue” states, we have clients with nuanced views, and we believe our work should always be nonpartisan.

state school associations running NSAA? NO! We truly started from scratch – all volunteers. Some of us work at state associations where we have a little more bandwidth to ask our employers for help. For example, we filed as a non-profit corporation in Oklahoma because the Oklahoma Association graciously volunteered to act as NSAA’s fiscal agent. The Montana School Boards Association hosted our listserv and website when we first got off the ground. There are several other state associations and private attorneys who provided either in-kind or monetary support for NSAA. Now that we are regularly receiving dues, we are weaning ourselves off the state-level support. We took a big step in that direction in early June 2024, when we hired Sonja Trainor as Executive Director. Together our operations director, Cheryl Richardson, and Sonja ensure that NSAA operates independently, under the direction of its Board of Directors

Can I be in both COSA and NSAA? YES!

How much will it cost? We are keeping dues as low as possible given that NSAA is a new national organization. For 2025-2026, dues are $250 per attorney. Some state associations have volunteered to collect dues for their states and others will be sending in their dues payments directly to NSAA.

What does NSAA offer? NSAA offers a network of school attorneys across the country working on our shared federal issues and a surprising number of overlapping state issues, sometimes giving all of us a preview of legislation or litigation before we see it in our own states. We have an online platform for keeping connected through the NSAA listserv, regular Zoom meetings to discuss emerging issues, webinars (free to NSAA members), and in-person and virtual conferences offering CLE credits, including legal ethics Our first virtual conference will take place in March 2025 and our third in-person conference will be in Fort Worth, Texas, October 15-17, 2025.

Will NSAA do legal advocacy? Yes! In fact, noted Title IX practitioner Jackie Wernz penned our inaugural effort at legal advocacy in 2023 with an excellent comment to the Department of Education on the proposed Title IX rule on athletic participation. With the start of a new administration in 2024, we anticipate more opportunities to weigh in on agency activity. We’ve filed three amicus briefs so far in U.S. Courts of Appeals and anticipate more to come.

What are the membership eligibility criteria? Membership in NSAA is open to attorneys licensed to practice before the highest court of any state of the United States or the highest court of any province or state in a country outside the U.S., or before a court of record of the U.S.; and who are actively representing on a regular or continuing basis a public school district, a state school boards association, or a public junior or community college which is a member of a state school boards association. The NSAA board may grant associate member status to law students and others per policy.

If you have any questions about membership, please contact Executive Director Sonja Trainor, strainor@nsaa.legal or Operations Manager Cheryl Richardson, crichardson@nsaa.legal.