Overview

Eric Barba is Senior Counsel in Lozano Smith's Walnut Creek Office. His practice focuses on the labor and employment, charter school, and governance aspects of education law.

Experience

Mr. Barba has worked closely with K-12 school boards and administrators on a wide range of subject matters. He is skilled in counseling school boards regarding state and federal civil rights laws, including Section 504 and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act; student discipline; Fourth Amendment protections; and education record privacy. He is experienced in conducting internal investigations and has prepared external responses for complaints filed with the U.S. Department of Education, including the Office for Civil Rights and the Student Privacy Policy Office. Additionally, Mr. Barba has represented school boards in administrative proceedings and frequently drafts service agreements, contracts, board policies, and student-parent handbooks.

Previously, Mr. Barba has served as the Director of JD Admissions for an Ivy League law school, an experience through which Mr. Barba attributes his dedication to, and special understanding of, providing educational administrators with responsive and sound legal advice to address their daily operational needs.

Admissions

Mr. Barba is admitted to practice before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

Education

Mr. Barba received his Juris Doctor degree from the UCLA School of Law, where he was a recipient of the Douglas Ring Scholarship. While in Law School, he was a coordinator at the El Centro Legal Immigration Detention Center Clinic, and was the admissions chair of the La Raza Law Students Association. He also was Associate and Managing Editor of the Chicana/o - Latina/o Law Review. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and History at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he was elected Phi Beta Kappa.

Approval of Nation's First Religious Based Charter School Opens Door to Contentious Constitutional Question

By: Edward Sklar, Eric Barba- 08/18/2023