About Lisa McBride

Legal Assistant: Betsy Maggard | 713-554-6754 | bmaggard@thompsonhorton.com

Lisa represents public and private schools, charter schools, community colleges and other governmental entities in a wide range of matters. Lisa’s mother, a lifelong teacher and principal in HISD, taught Lisa the importance of achieving excellence in our schools and how a strong leader can positively impact a school and school district. Lisa holds herself to these same high standards every day in serving her clients.

Lisa is a founding partner at Thompson & Horton. For over twenty years, Lisa has effectively represented her clients on wide-ranging issues, including commercial litigation; labor and employment matters; internal and external investigations; trustee, bond, and voter-ratified tax elections; redistricting and voting rights matters; constitutional law; and civil rights litigation. Lisa routinely advises her clients on legal issues concerning the Texas Public Information Act, the Texas Open Meetings Act, and the Texas Election Code. She also has extensive experience representing clients in both state and federal court, as well as in front of administrative bodies.

Lisa is widely regarded as an expert in election law. She advises clients on all aspects of the lawful conduct of an election, including required election resolutions, notices, orders and ballot language; joint election agreements and contracts for election services; early voting; the responsibilities of election officials; candidate applications; election personnel and equipment; election-day activities; election records; proper cancellation of an election; campaign finance and ethics; permissible and impermissible election communications; and public forum issues. She also represents clients in election and voting rights litigation and redistricting. Lisa recently resolved a major lawsuit alleging a district’s at-large system for electing board trustees was in violation of the Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

Lisa speaks frequently on topics involving school law and has conducted numerous trainings on compliance with state and federal laws. Lisa also handles high-profile investigations involving misuse of public funds, harassment, discrimination, official misconduct, and alleged employee wrong-doing.

Lisa assists clients with the creation and implementation of governance, employment, business, and education policies and procedures. She also has extensive experience representing clients in both state and federal court and before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the United States Department of Education, the United States Department of Justice, the Texas Workforce Commission, the Texas Ethics Commission and the Texas Education Agency in matters involving alleged age, race, gender, national origin, and disability discrimination; harassment; retaliation; wrongful discharge; wage and hour disputes; family and medical leave; voting rights; redistricting; desegregation; election contests and election recounts; challenges to the use of bond proceeds; and petitions to order governmental entities and/or their officials to perform specified election duties.

Education

• J.D., University of Virginia School of Law, 2000
• B.A., cum laude, Rice University, 1997

Licensing & Court Admissions

• Licensed in the state of Texas
• U.S. Supreme Court
• U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
• U.S. District Court for the Northern, Southern, Eastern, and Western Districts of Texas

Memberships & Recognitions

• Texas Rising Star, Schools and Education Law, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013
• Texas “Super Lawyer,” Texas Monthly Magazine, 2013-2019
• State Bar of Texas, School Law Section
• Houston Bar Association
• Education Law Association
• National School Boards Association – Council of School Attorneys
• Texas Association of School Boards – Council of School Attorneys
• President, Board of Directors, Aldine Education Foundation

Selected Client Representations

• Successfully resolved a consolidated lawsuit brought by 61 plaintiffs alleging failure-to-hire age discrimination
• Successfully defended school district against a petition for mandamus challenging the District’s decision to reject a candidate’s application for a place on the ballot
• Successfully defended a school district against a petition for mandamus, injunctive relief, and declaratory judgment challenging the composition of a home-rule charter commission appointed by the school district
• Successfully defended school district’s locally adopted teacher appraisal system before an independent hearing examiner and the Texas Commissioner of Education
• Obtained summary judgment for a school district on parents’ federal and state constitutional and statutory challenges to the school district’s visitor access procedures which require registered sex offender verification
• Lead counsel in a bench trial resulting in judgment in favor of a school district on a former employee’s claims of retaliation, disability, gender, and national origin discrimination
• Successfully facilitated a favorable settlement in multi-million dollar lawsuit filed by a school district against a refrigerated warehouse for ammonia contamination of frozen food used in the district’s school lunch program
• Successfully defended a school district’s value-added, performance-based bonus system before an independent hearing examiner
• Successfully defended a school district against a petition for mandamus challenging the district’s decision to change its election date
• Assisted several school districts with converting from at-large systems to single-member district systems
• Assisted several school districts in response to formal recount petitions filed by unsuccessful candidates for election

Representative Speeches & Presentations

• Speaker, “Compliance Matters: Everything You Need to Know About the Office of Civil Rights and Title IX, Region IV
• Speaker, “Settlement Agreements for the 21^st Century,” 32nd Annual UT School Law Conference, Co-Presenter Kevin Lungwitz, The Lungwitz Law Firm, P.C.
• Speaker , “Use It or Lose It: Preserving Privilege in the PIA Process,” Texas Association of School Administrators, Midwinter Conference, Co-Presenters – Melisa E. Meyler, Thompson & Horton, and Jeremy Binkley, Spring ISD
• Speaker, “Teacher Appraisal Issues,” Legal Issues for Texas School Administrators, University of St. ThomasCo-Presenter – Merri Schneider-Vogel, Thompson & Horton
• Speaker, “Home-Rule School Districts: Questions and Answers (and Unanswered Questions)”, 30th Annual UT School Law Conference
• Speaker, “When OCR Comes Knocking at the Door: Understanding & Responding to OCR Complaints”, 2014 Region IV Compliance Matters Workshop
• Speaker, “The Principal’s Role in Staff Selection”, 27^th Annual TASSP-Legal Digest Conference on Education Law for Principals
• Speaker, “Employee Rights and Employer Responsibilities under the ADA and FMLA”, St. Thomas University, March 2014
• Speaker, “Redistricting After the 2010 Census,” 50^th Annual Convention of the Texas Association of School Boards/Texas Association of School Administrators
• Speaker, “Moving Forward or Rolling Back?: School Tax Rate Ratification Elections in 2009 and Beyond,” 49th Annual Convention of the Texas Association of School Boards/Texas Association of School Administrators, co-presented by Philip Fraissinet, partner, Thompson & Horton LLP