Craig Price and Austin Payne presented on Critical Race Theory at the annual California School Board Association conference in San Diego. The two successfully defended one of the first CRT-related lawsuits in the U.S. In that case, a highly partisan group sued the Santa Barbara Unified School District to block implicit bias training for faculty and students.

Price is a long-term partner at Griffith and Thornburgh who was a civil trial lawyer for many years before developing a diverse education law practice. He is a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates. He represents many educational agencies in Santa Barbara County across a spectrum of matters.

Payne joined Griffith and Thornburgh several years ago after working in the Tennessee Attorney General’s office. He handles human resource, labor, governance, voting rights, contracts, Brown Act, Public Records Act and other matters for numerous K-12 districts, the Santa Barbara County Superintendent and Board of Education, and the Santa Barbara City College.

In a published opinion, Craig Price and Austin Payne prevailed in a writ proceeding in the superior court and before the California Court of Appeal. On appeal, the court rejected a taxpayer group’s attempt to invalidate two no-bid contracts between a school district and vendor providing diversity and anti-bias training to educators. (Fair Education Santa Barbara v. Santa Barbara Unified School District (December 15, 2021; 2d Civ. No. B309248.) The Court held that the contracts met the requirements for two statutory exceptions to public bidding requirements: exceptions for “professional services” and “special services.”

Austin Payne, Craig Price, and Joseph Sholder successfully defended a lawsuit and subsequent appeal by a high school principal who claimed his re-assignment to a teaching position violated his right to due process. Behrens v. Santa Barbara Unified School District (March 24, 2021); 2d Civ. No. B301622, unpublished.