Patricia J. Whitten is a
partner at Franczek Sullivan P.C. and has headed the firm's
Education Law Practice Team. She has devoted her entire legal
career to the practice of education law. Her expertise involves
all aspects of education law, including litigation at all
levels of state and federal courts and administrative agencies.
She has an in-depth background in constitutional and civil
rights, including educational equity and desegregation issues,
labor and employment, vendor contracts, tax and finance, board
administrative matters, and legislative drafting and interpretation.
Her practice in recent years has had a particular focus on
special education law and educational equity issues and related
litigation. Ms. Whitten has written numerous articles on school
law and is a frequent speaker on the topic at the state and
national levels. She is admitted to practice before the United
States Supreme Court and has participated in representing
clients in several precedent-setting cases in the federal
courts, including authoring friend-of-the-court briefs on
behalf of school districts and school-related organizations.
Ms. Whitten was the General Counsel for the Chicago Board
of Education for more than eleven years, and prior to that
she spent most of her legal career in the Chicago Board's
Law Department. She was the Chicago Board's first female
and youngest General Counsel. Prior to joining Franczek Sullivan in 1994, she was with Seyfarth Shaw (1990-1994). Ms.
Whitten is a member of numerous bar associations and is active
in the National School Boards Association Council of School
Attorneys. She has sat on the Illinois State Bar Association's
Education Law Section Council and the Committee on Law Related
Education for the Public, which she chaired. She is also a
founding member of the Illinois Council of School Attorneys,
and currently serves on its executive board. Ms. Whitten graduated
in 1974 with honors from the Chicago-Kent College of Law,
where she was a member of the Law Review.
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