312.332.7760 (tel.)
312.332.7768 (fax)
hkatz@rsnlt.com

Practice Areas: Education, Local Governments

Heidi Katz provides legal representation to public school districts, community colleges and other local governmental entities. Areas of specialty include policy development, students' rights and special education issues, student discipline, finance, real estate, boundary changes, civil rights and intergovernmental agreements.

Heidi served as President of the Illinois Council of School Attorneys from 1998 to 1999 and is currently a member of the Council's Executive Committee. She has been appointed a Special Assistant State's Attorney in Ogle County to handle tax rate objections by a major public utility, and has also served as an adjunct faculty member at Loyola University of Chicago.

Law & Politics Magazine selected Heidi as an Illinois "Super Lawyer" in the specialized area of School and Education Law in 2005 and 2006. In 2006, Heidi was named a "Leading Lawyer" by the Law Bulletin Publishing Company for being recognized in a survey of her peers as being in the top five percent of Illinois attorneys.

Heidi's summary of how "Non-Referendum Bonds Can Be Used to Pay Alternate Bonds" co-authored with Lynda K. Given was designated "Best Legal Article" for 2003, by its publisher the Illinois Parks & Recreation Magazine. Other achievements include preparing an appellate amicus brief for the Illinois Association of School Boards in Chicago Tribune v. Chicago Board of Education, 332 Ill.App.3d 60 (1st Dist. 2002), petition for leave to appeal denied, 201 Ill.2d 562 (Oct. 2, 2002), in which the Illinois Appellate Court held educational records requested by the Tribune for an investigation into the causes of student absenteeism to be statutorily exempt from inspection and copying under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act. She also prepared an appellate amicus brief for the Illinois Associations of School Boards and School Business Officials which supplied the rationale for the decision and was cited approvingly three times by the Illinois Supreme Court in In Re County Collector of DuPage County, 187 Ill.2d 326, 718 N.E.2d 164 (1999), holding that there is no correlation under The School Code between school districts' budgets and levies adopted in the same calendar year.

Heidi served as a law clerk to the late Judge Thomas R. McMillen, United States District Judge, Northern District of Illinois. Her pre-law career included newspaper and radio reporting for the Naperville Sun and for WDVH Radio in Gainesville, Florida.

Education

• J.D., Loyola University of Chicago, School of Law, 1979
• B.A. cum laude, Journalism, University of Wisconsin-Madison (Phi Beta Kappa), 1973

Admitted to Practice

• U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
• Trial Bar of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
• Trial Bar of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois
• Supreme Court of Illinois

Recent Publications

• Can the 'Heckler's Veto' Trump Tinker-protected Student Speech?, Inquiry and Analysis, National School Board Association Council of School Attorneys (Feb. 2006).
• Co-author, Non-Referendum Bonds Can Be Used to Pay Alternate Bonds, Illinois Parks and Recreation magazine (Sept./Oct. 2003).
• Chapter editor and contributing author, Student Rights and Responsibilities, Illinois School Law (Ill. Inst. for Continuing Legal Education 1999 and 2005 editions).

Recent Presentations

• Promoting Racially & Ethically Diverse Schools After the Supreme Court Decision in Parents Involved, Fall 2007 School Administrators' Conference, Oak Brook, IL (Sept. 2007).
• Internet Liabilities: Issues for Schools, North Cook Intermediate Service Center program for Administrators' Academy credit, Des Plaines, IL (March 2007).
• School Internet Use and Liability Avoidance, North Cook Intermediate Service Center program for Administrators' Academy credit, Des Plaines, IL (Dec. 2006).
• Can the "Heckler's Veto" Trump Tinker-Protected Student Speech?, National Council of School Attorneys' 2006 School Law Advocacy Seminar, Kansas City, MO (Oct. 2006).
• Selected Internet Liability Issues for Schools, North Cook and West 40 Intermediate Service Centers, Des Plaines and Westchester, IL (March 2006).
• Selected School Legal Issues Relating to Electronic Communication, North Cook and West 40 Intermediate Service Centers, Des Plaines and Westchester, IL (May and June 2005).
• Panel presenter, Rate Referenda and the PTELL and ethics law rules for referendum campaigns, 2004 Legal Compliance Seminar, Illinois Association of School Business Officials (IASBO) for Administrators' Academy credit, Downers Grove, IL (May 2004).
• Open Meetings Act Update, 30th Annual Workshop, Rolling Prairie Library System, Decatur, IL (Apr. 2004).
• Libraries' Impact on Public Understanding of the USA PATRIOT Act, 30th Annual Workshop, Rolling Prairie Library System, Decatur, IL (Apr. 2004).
• Board Governance Potpourri with an Emphasis on Recent Changes to the Open Meetings Act, Illinois Alliance of Administrators of Special Education, Fifth Annual Winter Conference, Urbana, IL (Jan. 2004).
• Advising School Clients on Matters Involving School Finance Authorities, Illinois Council of School Attorneys, 17th Annual Seminar on School Law (Nov. 2003).
• Heidi Katz, Mathias Delort and Chicago Tribune Public Editor Don Wycliff, Recent Open Meetings Act and Ethics Law Changes, ED-RED Council Meeting, Maine South High School, Park Ridge, IL (Oct. 2003).
• Tall Order for Libraries: Protecting First Amendment Values in Trying Times, Illinois State Library's Institute for School and Public Librarians, Bradley University, Peoria, IL (June 2003).
• Don't Go There - That's Private!, IASB/IASA/IASBO Joint Annual Conference (Nov. 2002).
• Title IX Turns 30, DuPage Chapter of American Association of University Women (Nov. 2002).
• Protecting Your Tax Base: Update on Real Property Assessment Developments, Legal Symposium, Illinois Association of Park Districts (Nov. 2002).
• Public Funds for Private Schools: The Outlook for Vouchers, Tax Breaks and Other Boons after Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, ED-RED Council Meeting, Maine South High School, Park Ridge, IL (2002).
• Legal Liability Avoidance, Grundy Area Vocational Center In-Service (2002).
• Intellectual Freedom Hot Topics, Illinois Library Association, Annual Conference (2002).
• Teacher Responsibility and Liability in a Private School, National College of Education of National-Louis University, Baker Demonstration School Faculty Retreat (2002).
• Identifying and Preventing Sexual Harassment in Schools, Third Annual Spring Conference, Illinois Alliance of Administrators of Special Education (May 2002).
• Due Process and Case Law Update, Third Annual Spring Conference, Illinois Alliance of Administrators of Special Education (May 2002).