Dulcinea  Grantham

Partner | Walnut Creek

dgrantham@lozanosmith.com
Tel: 925.953.1620
Fax: 925.953.1625
Vcard   | Bio

Overview

Dulcinea Grantham is a Partner in Lozano Smith's Walnut Creek office. She specializes in labor and employment and governance issues for school districts. Ms. Grantham has significant experience handling layoff hearings, arbitrations and classified and certificated employee dismissal matters. She has handled small and large layoffs, including hearings in excess of 300 full-time employees. Ms. Grantham also has extensive experience in employee/employer relations and negotiations for school district clients, including helping clients with impasse mediation and fact finding. Ms. Grantham has negotiated agreements with labor associations throughout the State of California. Ms. Grantham is a certified Trainer of Trainers regarding effective negotiations practices, including Interest Based Bargaining. Ms. Grantham provides day-to-day support to clients in all areas affecting employees, including leaves of absence, accommodations, evaluation, complaint investigations, and discipline. Ms. Grantham is an active member of the Firm's Labor and Employment Practice Group.

Experience

Ms. Grantham is focused on representing public entity clients in the following areas:
  • General Governance
    • Brown Act issues
    • Effective board governance
    • Conflicts of interest
    • Public Records Act
  • Employee/Employer Relations and Employment Law
    • Employee discipline and dismissal
    • Effective evaluation systems
    • Affordable Care Act
    • Leave laws
    • Employment contracts
    • Labor law
    • Negotiations
    • First Amendment issues
    • Investigations of discrimination and harassment complaints
    • Reasonable accommodation and interactive processes
    • Certificated and classified employee issues
    • Employment discrimination
    • Sexual harassment
    • Wrongful termination
    • Civil rights issues
    • Mandated reporter issues
    • Uniform Complaint Procedures
Prior to joining Lozano Smith, Ms. Grantham served as Deputy Legislative Counsel for the California Legislative Counsel's office in Sacramento, California. She provided nonpartisan legal services for Members of the Legislature. She drafted bills, constitutional amendments, resolutions, and amendments to those measures, particularly in the areas of elementary and secondary education, elections, legislative procedure, and employment.

Ms. Grantham was an adjunct faculty member with the University of San Francisco School of Law where she provided instruction to law students on the legislative process, legislative drafting, and statutory interpretation. Ms. Grantham also was an extern with the California Supreme Court, Chambers of Justice Kennard; and a law clerk with the United States Attorney's Office, Northern District of California. She interned in the Office of Senator John McCain in Washington, D.C. and in the Ward III City Council Office in Tucson, Arizona.

Presenter Experience

Ms. Grantham has been a speaker for the Association of California School Administrators (ACSA) and the California Association of School Business Officials (CASBO) on a wide range of topics including labor negotiations; employee status, evaluation, investigation, and discipline; employee leaves of absence; and employee accommodations. She has made presentations on hiring and supervising athletic employees for the National School Boards Association (NSBA) and presented to the California School Boards Association (CSBA) on handling complaints against high level administrators.

Articles

Ms. Grantham has written numerous, significant articles. They include:
  • "Code of Conduct: Reviewing and Auditing Your Hiring and Supervision Practices for Athletic Coaches" published by American School Board Journal, Volume 198, No. 8, August 2011;

  • "Certificated Step and Column Freezes" published by School Services of California, in the Fiscal Report, Volume 30, No. 1, January 2010;

  • "The Impact of the European Union Data Privacy Directive Safe Harbor on U.S. Privacy Practices: Is it Time for Congress to Take Action to Strengthen U.S. Privacy Laws?" published in the Fall 2001 issue of the Journal of Internet Law; and

  • "Transforming Transplantation: The Effect of the Health and Human Services Final Rule on the Organ Allocation System" published in the University of San Francisco Law Review in 2001.

Professional Affiliations

Ms Grantham is a member of the Labor and Employment Section of the California Bar, the National School Boards Association's Council of School Attorneys, and the California Council of School Attorneys.

Education

Ms. Grantham received her J.D., cum laude, from the University of San Francisco School of Law and her B.A. from the University of Arizona. She was the Editor-in-Chief of the USF Law Review. She is a member of the State Bar of California.

Significant Cases

Ms. Grantham authored an amicus brief on behalf of the California School Boards Association (CSBA) in the Hildebrandt v. St. Helena USD case. Hildebrandt established a school district's right to maintain full-time teaching or service positions without being forced to split the positions to accommodate senior laid off employees. Ms. Grantham successfully represented Sonoma Valley Unified School District at the California Court of Appeal in McIntyre v. Sonoma Valley Unified School District, where a certificated employee challenged her temporary employee classification. In that decision, the Court affirmed the authority of school districts to classify certificated employees as temporary for multiple years and upheld prior case law confirming that school districts are not required to match each temporary employee to a specific employee on leave. Also of note, while at the California Legislative Counsel's Office, Ms Grantham represented the California Legislature in Californians for an Open Primary v. McPherson (38 Cal.4th 735).

Preparing for 2019 - New Employee Leave and Accommodations Requirements

By: Dulcinea Grantham-

Are you prepared for 2019? Join Lozano Smith attorneys Dulcinea Grantham and Niki Nabavi Nouri as they discuss three important employee leave and accommodations requirements that will impact school districts and public agencies in the coming year.