Erin D. Gilsbach, esq.
An experienced speaker and writer at the state and national levels on current trends and important issues regarding school law and education, and a highly-skilled professional development expert, Erin Gilsbach the Executive Director of EdLaw Interactive, which provides high-quality live and web-based professional education programs in the area of school law to educators and school leaders. She also serves as special counsel with the Pennsylvania-based law firm of Steckel and Stopp. Atty. Gilsbach has extensive experience working with schools and providing proactive professional development programs for school attorneys and school leaders on legally-defensible practices. She has provided legal representation and/or professional development to over 150 public, private and charter schools, and she currently serves as Past President and Member of the Board of Directors of the PA School Boards Association (PSBA) Solicitor’s Association. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of the National School Boards Association (NSBA) Council of School Attorneys. Atty. Gilsbach is a frequent writer and presenter with PSBA, NSBA, NSBA’s Council of School Attorneys (COSA), and the National Business Institute (NBI). She was selected as 2018’s Distinguished Speaker by the Missouri Council of Administrators of Special Education.
Recent speaking engagements include the 2019 PA Department of Education / PaTTAN annual conference, the 2019, 2018, 2017, and 2017 annual NSBA/COSA conferences in Philadelphia, Santa Fe, Boston, Nashville, Denver, Portland, and San Antonio, the 2016 and 2017 national Education Law Association annual conferences in Orlando and San Diego; the 2019 annual NY State School Boards Association conference in Rochester, the North Dakota School Boards Association Annual Conference in Bismarck, ND; several National Business Institute live-panel session in Eau Claire, WI; the 2018 Missouri Council of Administrators of Special Education Law Conference in Columbia, MO; and the 2018 LRP Annual National Institutes in Orlando and Dallas.
Atty. Gilsbach has authored articles on school law topics for numerous state and national publications and organizations, served as legal consultant on a legal reference for school nurses, and recently published a handbook on school health services through LRP Publications entitled Student Health Services under IDEA and Section 504, which is available at http://www.shoplrp.com/product_p/300706.htm. She is also a contributing author for the PSBA School Law Handbook. She also designs the content and curriculum for dozens of EdLaw Interactive programs, and she designs and presents school law webinars for a number of national webinar providers, including NSBA/COSA.
Atty. Gilsbach emphasizes a proactive approach to legal defensibility for schools by helping them to create procedures, administrative regulations and board policies that are developed not only upon consideration of statutory and regulatory requirements but also the best practices and common pitfalls found within the facts of applicable caselaw. Voted a Rising Star Attorney by her peers in Superlawyers and Philadelphia magazines for five consecutive years, Atty. Gilsbach began her career as a public high school English teacher. Prior to working in private practice, she served for two and a half years at the Pennsylvania Department of Education's Office of Chief Counsel. Atty. Gilsbach received a B.A. in English with a minor in Secondary Education from Grove City College in Grove City, Pennsylvania. She received her Juris Doctorate from Penn State University Dickinson School of Law.