Jennifer Carbuccia, Class of ’07

Jennifer Carbuccia ’07 has served as the General Counsel at Sweetwater Union High School District for over a decade. Previously, she directed labor relations at San Diego Unified School District and served in leadership in labor relations at the City of San Diego. Before that she was an attorney at Currier & Hudson, advising school district, college, utilities, and other public agency clients in San Diego and Imperial County.

Before coming to King Hall, she was a union organizer for various AFL-CIO unions and lobbied and developed public policy for United Domestic Workers, AFSCME, and AFL-CIO. Just before law school, she lobbied and did community relations work on behalf of public agencies, private sector, non-profit, and trade clients at the Law Office of Hatch and Parent (Now Brownstein, Hyatt, Farber, Schreck).

How did you become interested in education law and what are some of the issues you encounter?

When I was at King Hall, I knew I was drawn to public interest law, and my short time in private sector Big Law confirmed this for me. Almost immediately, I applied at a firm that only represented public agencies and school districts. It was an amazing experience being managed by mainly female attorneys working out of our own homes on our own schedules. We would drive to clients and really built strong relationships with their agencies.

Kerianne [Steele ’07] and I formed the Labor and Employment Law Association when we were at King Hall. I knew leaving law school that I didn't want to represent management necessarily. So, for me, working for public sector clients was ideal. And now being in-house for a public agency is just a dream. In my mind, when you work for a public agency, you really are working for the public, in my case students, families, and staff. It isn't management side versus employee side, it’s what’s best for our community. And so it really was a good fit.

Really, education law is a mix of every type of law that you could think of. Employment law is one really big facet of education law, but there are so many different pieces. From constitutional law (which I loved when we were there) to public records, all of the actual APA, special education and disability law, bond law, and of course all of the public policy and compliance work. You even see criminal law! I even had to do SEC law, not for positive reasons. For someone like me, the idea that you are constantly able to do something different, and your focus changes twenty things a day, fits my style and my structure.

Why did you choose to attend King Hall?

I was a double major in ethnic studies and history in college. So, for me, equity and civil rights have always been very, very important pieces of work I wanted to do. Labor unions and employee rights were deeply part of my beliefs. Also being able to attend Dr. Martin Luther King School of Law, where there was a public interest approach, was key for me. I worked for ten years before I went to law school, and I decided that I'd stay at home in San Diego unless I got into one of the UCs. I was lobbying in Sacramento three days a week at the time. I love the Sacramento Kings, and I had season tickets. So, for me, UC Davis was ideal! I loved and had obviously worked in Sacramento, and so it was a comfortable city to be in. And it kept me close to things that I loved, like basketball.

What is your favorite King hall memory?

I think for me really those study groups late at night with my core four. Me, Chad [Mahalich], Sarah [Nunnery], and Elana [Goldstein] were always together. I actually got to see Elana recently and relive so many memories. Our study group got very, very close because of the trauma associated with class, exam, and bar prep. I wouldn’t have survived without our group.

But we also had fun. Like I said, I love Kings basketball, so when I think of law school, I think of sitting in the nosebleed section at Arco Arena with Chad, and every time there was a break in play, we would break out our flashcards or outlines. For me, I tie King Hall to the sound of cowbells and very loud arenas. That's how I stayed motivated. So, it really is the people, that notion of camaraderie, in a big way.

How have you stayed involved with King Hall?

I'm really lucky. Donna [Associate Dean Donna Shestowsky] very commonly lets me come up and judge negotiations competitions. I've been lucky enough to have a few King Hall interns. After I left, King Hall started teaching Education Law, and so we've been lucky enough to have interns come down that are local. I get to attend alumni visits in San Diego. It is really cool when we get to have those opportunities.

What do you do when you aren't working?

Sleep when I can. No seriously. I also really like to hike and to get a little bit of time in the sun looking at trees, mountains, and flowers. Not beaches though. Funny living in San Diego and hating the beach, but I really love mountains.

I also love soccer and serve on an amazing non-profit Lets Go South Bay! that uses soccer as a way to encourage middle school girls to build leadership and mental health skills. It's sponsored by the Alex Morgan Foundation and ties into the important Title IX work we have been doing at Sweetwater.

Of what are you proudest?

The fact that I'm still standing. Right now, we have a lot going on as lawyers. Related especially to this new President and what's going on. I'm really proud that I'm working at an agency that respects our students’ rights and that respects diversity, equity, and inclusion. Very much the tenets of what law school at King Hall taught me. I’m proud of the fact that I haven't deviated off the pathway of support, but it definitely makes it super frustrating right now on a daily basis that the rule of law means nothing to this administration, and that we don't have the ability to know what precedent’s going to mean or if it's going to mean anything at all. On a daily basis, really having to work with, where's your moral compass? And what does that moral compass mean as it relates to the law? Does anybody care? (I am speaking as a person, not for my agency — legal disclaimer).

I started my career working with labor unions, worked for employees, and I'm very proud that I'm considered probably one of the most employee-friendly, or at least employee-neutral, management-side lawyers in my field. (I'm the chief negotiator as well for the district.) I'm proud that I have the chance to work for an agency that can be pro-employee while still being focused on students, a place where I can still follow my core beliefs and the things that I went to law school for.

Do you have any advice for current law students?

The reality is the law isn't what the law was when we were in law school. I recognize that our role is to be zealous advocates for whoever our client is and find a way to make compelling arguments, but there's always been a stability of what those arguments would be. Be creative, but you still had precedent and had to distinguish why your case was different. You still knew what the rule of law was. I don't know how you teach contracts law right now if you don't know what precedent is actually going to stand. How do you teach Con Law right now?

As a professor, I can tell you what happened before, what the law used to say. But, hey, yesterday the federal government just decided that DEI means discrimination. And judges are being threatened with removal or arrest because they support the rule of law. What does that say about the role of the legal field? This notion that as a law student, you worked hard in class, you Witkined Con Law I, and you Witkined Con Law II. And you think you understand the field. And then the next day you read on X that the President is issuing orders that try to flip the 14th Amendment on its head. It can happen just like that.

So, my advice for current and incoming law students is to focus on learning advocacy skills, learning transactional skills, and on learning how to read and analyze cases. Place less focus on what cases say or what the precedent is, because what the precedent is today is not what the precedent will be tomorrow.

And I think that's a hard place, especially as a public interest attorney. How do you train people to recognize that the system of law is changing in the United States? What do we do about that and what does that look like and how does one still maintain themselves in such an unsettled system?

Law students should consider why are you in law school and what's your actual purpose in attending? Know what you want to do with your law degree. Say to yourself, I want to advocate for the rights of [insert your passion]. Okay, then you focus 100% on the skill sets you need for that. Is that a clinic? Is that an internship? What do you need? Know the law in your field, but recognize what you're learning from the book isn’t really giving you the skills you will end up needing to serve as a zealous advocate.