Lynne C. Adams

Overview

Lynne is a strategic advisor and confidante to many of Arizona’s educators, navigating the everyday challenges faced by learning institutions so that they can focus on providing quality attention and scholarship to students across the state. Since her time serving as Chief Counsel of the Education and Health Section of the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, Lynne has provided more than two decades’ worth of service to a wide range of charter schools, school districts, community colleges, and public and private universities. 

Lynne leads the commercial litigation group’s education law practice. She focuses on regulatory matters and litigation and provides ongoing legal advice to her school clients, including compliance with all aspects of education law, Arizona’s Open Meeting Law, and Arizona’s public records law. Among other things, she has provided advice regarding constitutional law issues, student discipline matters, Title IX, statutory requirements, parent issues, student enrollment, school finance, and responses to complaints filed with the Arizona State Board for Charter Schools and Arizona Department of Education. She also assists prospective charter schools with their applications and organization. 

Some of her most notable cases include providing amicus briefs to the Arizona Supreme Court regarding public schools’ duties to their students in Dinsmoor v. City of Phoenix, No. CV-20-0214-PR (Aug. 6, 2021, Ariz. Supreme Court); defending the Maricopa County Community College District over its in-state tuition policy for DACA students; and challenging the Arizona State Board for Charter Schools’ practice of adopting rules without following the required legal process in Legacy Education Group v. Arizona State Board for Charter Schools, No. 1 CA-CV 17-0023 (June 8, 2018, Ariz. Ct. App.).

An advocate for education outside her practice, Lynne is a respected member of the local community. She was a member of the committee that selects Maricopa County Superior Court Commissioners, was an active member of the Phoenix Collegiate Academy governing board and has offered pro bono services to several community arts and nonprofit arts organizations. She has been named one of Arizona’s Top 100 Lawyers by AZ Business Magazine and Education Lawyer of the Year by Best Lawyers® on numerous occasions.