Jay Worona is a Partner in the Firm’s Education Law Practice Group.
Mr. Worona recently retired from the position of Deputy Executive Director and General Counsel for the New York State School Boards Association. He joined the Association in 1984, was appointed General Counsel in 1990 and appointed Deputy Executive Director in 2014.
In that role, Mr. Worona was responsible for representing the New York State School Boards Association and its membership of approximately 700 school districts in both direct and amicus curiae (friend‐ of‐the Court) litigation on wide‐ranging legal topics such as tenure and seniority rights of school employees, special education, the constitutional separation of church and state as it applies to the operation of public schools and the legal authority of school boards.
Mr. Worona regularly presents at conferences throughout the state and nation on a range of legal topics affecting the operation of public education. In this regard, Mr. Worona is considered a national expert and has regularly appeared in the national media, including FOX National News, CNN, NPR and PBS.
Mr. Worona served as Chair of the Board of Directors of the National Council of School Attorneys (COSA) in 2007. This organization represents the interests of school lawyers throughout the nation. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the New York State Association of School Attorneys, and serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the Law, Youth & Citizenship Committee of the New York State Bar Association, as well as the North American Association of Educational Negotiators.
He also serves as an adjunct professor at the School of Educational Administration and Policy Studies at the State University of New York at Albany. In 2003 and again in 2014, Jay received the Excellence in Part‐Time Teaching Award for his service. Mr. Worona has also served as an adjunct instructor at Teacher’s College at Columbia University.
Mr. Worona has been admitted to practice law by the New York State Bar; the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, Eastern District of New York, Northern District of New York, and Western District of New York; the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, Sixth Circuit and Eleventh Circuit; and the United States Supreme Court.
Mr. Worona successfully argued and won a case before the United States Supreme Court involving the separation of church and state entitled, Board of Education of the Kiryas Joel Union Free School District v. Grumet.
