James O’Shaughnessy focuses his practice on the representation of public school districts, school boards, and other educational institutions, including charter schools and private schools. As leader of the firm’s New Hampshire school law group, Jim’s practice involves the full spectrum of school law matters, including board representation and governance, school district and SAU organization and budgets, cooperative and regional school district issues, school district annual meetings, policymaking, school safety, student discipline, Right to Know law, crisis management (assisting many districts navigate COVID-19), rights of students and school employees, teacher evaluations, staff misconduct investigations, labor relations and collective bargaining, and compliance with myriad state and federal laws and regulations.

Jim regularly represents public employers at the bargaining table, in grievance arbitration proceedings and mediations, in state court proceedings, and before numerous state administrative agencies. Jim also represents interstate NH-VT school districts, which involves the interpretation and application of the NH-VT Interstate Compact, RSA 200-B.

With a sophisticated understanding of the school law landscape, Jim develops and leads customized seminars and trainings on a variety of topics, and is one of the creative forces behind the firm’s annual New Hampshire Principals Academy for school administrators.

In 2019, Jim was elected to serve a two-year term as the Chair of the New Hampshire Council of School Attorneys and was appointed to serve on the New Hampshire Legislative Commission to Study Cooperative School District Issues. Jim has been named by Best Lawyers USA in Employment Law – Management, Employment Law – Management, and Education Law, as well as a “Rising Star” in Super Lawyers in Education Law. Jim is a 2019 graduate of Leadership New Hampshire.

In his free time, Jim enjoys cooking, playing a variety of musical instruments, mountain biking, hiking, spending time with his family outdoors, practicing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and reading. He also serves on the board of Concord Northeast Baseball and Softball.