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WILLIAM C. SOUKAS, Esq.
Contact William C. Soukas, Esq. at:
wsoukas@NowellLaw.us
William C. Soukas is a partner of the firm
whose practice encompasses the areas of school law, commercial and
civil litigation, labor and employment law and land use.
Mr. Soukas has extensive experience representing school boards and
provides counsel on corporate governance and procedure, board
policy, personnel matters, student discipline and due process He
guides boards in compliance matters involving Open Public Meetings
Act, Open Public Records Act, Public School Contracts Law, fiscal
accountability. Mr. Soukas negotiates interlocal service agreements
between school districts, vendor agreements, ground leases, and
contracts for construction/capital improvement projects and has
guided Boards and public entities in governmental investigations,
having helped to procure dismissals of a variety of discrimination
claims before the N.J. and U.S. Division on Civil Rights and the
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunities Commission, including the
dismissal of Title IX claims challenging a school’s decision not to
establish a girls’ athletics team.
As labor/employment counsel, Mr. Soukas guides administration in
tenure matters and employee performance and discipline cases,
in-house investigations, reasonable accommodation, reductions in
force, as well as in the collective bargaining process, impasse
proceedings and fact-finding.
An experienced litigator, Mr. Soukas appears before the Public
Employment Relations Commission (PERC) in unfair practice, contested
transfer and scope of negotiations petitions and has represented
Boards before federal, state and administrative courts in actions
involving discrimination, §1983 and civil rights, procurement
issues, special education, tuition and contract disputes.
Providing legal representation to private entities and individuals,
Mr. Soukas litigates business disputes and construction matters and
has litigated coverage disputes involving commercial general
liability, business interruption and professional liability. Mr.
Soukas also handles land development applications before planning
boards and zoning boards of adjustment and previously represented a
zoning board in a large municipality.
His representative cases include the following:
Kalogeras v. 239 Broad Ave., LLC,
202 N.J. 349 (2010 (NJ Supreme Court affirmed assignment of contract
and held that the governmental approval was an implied condition of
an agreement for the transfer of a liquor license);
Ramapo Indian Hills Board of Education v.
Bergen County Vocational & Technical Schools Board of Education,
State Board #45-00 (State Board of Education established the
entitlement of a county vocational school board to receive tuition
form a local board notwithstanding potential similarity in academic
programs); J.C. o/b/o J.C. v. Board of
Education of the Bergen County Vocational School District,
State Board #12-04 (State Board of Education confirmed school
district’s right to maintain copies of pupil’s disciplinary records
following the transfer of such records to pupil’s new school
district until two years following pupil’s departure from district
or pupil’s attainment of 23 years of age).
Mr. Soukas has been a guest speaker before the New Jersey Council of
County Vocational Schools, a statutory body empowered to aid
initiatives and make recommendations to the State Board of Education
regarding the improvement of vocational education. He has also
presented programs to school administrator groups on the issue of
Management of Risk and Avoidance of Exposure to Claims.
Mr. Soukas is rated AV “Preeminent” by Martindale Hubbell and is
admitted to practice in the State Courts of New Jersey and New York.
Mr. Soukas is also admitted to practice before the U.S. District
Court for the District of New Jersey, the U.S. District Courts for
the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York and the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the Third Circuit. Mr. Soukas is a graduate of Boston
College (B. S. Finance, cum laude, 1991) and Seton Hall School of
Law (J.D., 1994). He is a member of the Bergen County Bar
Association, the New Jersey State Bar Association (School Law
Committee and Labor and Employment Law Section), the New Jersey
School Boards Association, and has served as Northern District
Trustee of the New Jersey Association of School Attorneys.
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