Michelle H. Basi practices primarily in the areas of education, special education, litigation, and labor and employment law. Michelle regularly advises school districts and charter schools on student matters, including special education and Section 504 compliance, First Amendment rights, Title IX compliance and student discipline. Michelle also advises schools districts and charter schools on employment matters, including Title VII, the ADA, the ADEA, the FMLA, and the Teacher Tenure Act. Mic...

Celynda L. Brasher is a founding shareholder of the firm. She practices in the areas of education, litigation, and labor and employment law. Celynda represents numerous school districts throughout Missouri. She regularly advises boards of education and administrators on matters involving employee hiring, evaluation, remediation, and termination; student rights and discipline; special education; school finance; civil rights; contracts; the Missouri Open Meetings Act; church/state issues; and a...

Ian Cooper serves clients in employment, higher education, commercial, and tort matters. Ian regularly serves as lead counsel in significant cases, including class actions and other complex litigation and has tried numerous jury and bench trials in Missouri and Illinois. He has argued cases before the Missouri Supreme Court, the Illinois Supreme Court, the Missouri and Illinois Courts of Appeal, and the United States Courts of Appeal for the Seventh and Eighth Circuits and has briefed importa...

Margaret A. Hesse primarily practices in the areas of education law, employment law, and litigation. She has represented school districts in employment matters, including Title VII, the Safe Schools Act, Title IX, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, and the Equal Pay Act. She has represented employers in labor matters before the United States Department of Labor/Wage and Hour Division, the Illinois Commission on Human Rights and the Illinois Educatio...

Melanie Gurley Keeney practices in the areas of education, higher education, labor and employment, and immigration law. Her experience in education law includes representing school districts and institutions of higher education regarding various personnel and student matters, including tenure, terminations, discrimination, First Amendment, discipline, special education, Title IX, sexual discrimination, § 1983 claims, Open Meetings law, OCR complaints and other issues. Melanie represents ...

Jim Layton joined the firm in 2017 after serving more than 22 years in the Missouri Attorney General’s Office—nearly all of those as the State’s principal civil appellate lawyer, Solicitor General. Jim practices in both appellate and trial courts, particularly in matters involving complex legal questions, including those arising under the U.S. and Missouri constitutions, Missouri school funding and other education statutes, discrimination laws, and Missouri tax laws. He repr...

Mollie G. Mohan practices primarily in the areas of labor & employment and higher education with an emphasis on litigation and appeals. Mollie represents colleges, universities, and private employers in labor and employment matters at the administrative, trial, and appellate level. Prior to joining the firm, Mollie worked at a large-sized litigation firm in Saint Louis. While in law school, Mollie was a student law clerk to the Honorable Jean C. Hamilton of the United States District Cour...

Kate L. Nash practices primarily in the areas of higher education, education, non-profit, litigation, labor and employment law. Kate works primarily with educational institutions, including public and private colleges and universities, community colleges, public school districts and charter schools. She regularly advises these institutions, as well as private employers, on all manner of employment issues including Title VII, the ADA, the ADEA, the FMLA and related state laws. She advises inst...