Board's New Labor Counsel Proves Promising

At their June 26 meeting, the Hillside Board of Education hired the Murray Law Firm as their labor attorney and negotiator. The move appears to be a step in the right direction after years of low quality, high billing work from politically connected firms at the board.

As labor counsel, the Murray firm will represent the school district in contract negotiations with employee unions as well as defend the board from labor grievances and litigation.

A good labor counsel is indispensable to a district that wants to be able to negotiate effective labor contracts and be able to defend itself in costly labor grievances.

In litigated matters, the Murray firm boasts a success rate of over 90 percent in all of its cases. The firm also has over 30 years of experience in state public sector labor law and currently represents school boards in Elizabeth, Camden, Paterson, Jersey City, West New York, and Harrison.


MIND THE BILLING

One reason the Hillside school board chose the Murray firm was its reputable billing procedures. In the not to distant past, Hillside school board politicians played with firms who didn't mind padding and embellishing their bills with fax machine costs and hours upon hours of "research". The new school board wants to see those practices come to end.

In responding to the new hire, school board member Nathalie Yafet said Hillside was lucky to have the Murray firm.

"We're getting a top-notch service at a reasonable cost. It's great that the Hillside Board of Education is finally looking out for the taxpayers and not playing patronage as usual," she said.