Attorneys

Gregory J. Dannis is a Shareholder in the San Francisco office, President of Dannis Woliver Kelley, and a member of the Labor, Employment and Personnel (LEAP) and Board Ethics Transparency and Accountability (BETA) Practice Groups. He is serving his fourth term as a Board member of the Hillsborough City School District. He also became a member of the Board of Directors for Mercy High School Burlingame in August 2020.

Greg has 40 years’ experience in collective bargaining, including negotiating hundreds of agreements for certificated and classified employees in districts, county offices of education and community colleges throughout California. He was among the first group of employer representatives to be trained in the CTA/Management Model of Interest- Based Bargaining (IBB). He has trained approximately 100 districts in California, and utilizes the IBB process where it has been mutually embraced, and uses interest-based principles and techniques to achieve success even at so-called “traditional” bargaining tables. As the creator of the “Core Values” approach to negotiations, Greg has helped many districts focus on their primary educational mission even in times of fiscal crisis and challenging local labor- management relationships.

Greg is recognized as an expert in impasse procedures under the Educational Employment Relations Act, having participated in hundreds of mediations and serving as the employer’s representative on dozens of fact finding panels. He is also experienced in coping with employee concerted activities and has been called upon to manage and ultimately resolve fundamental differences between unions and employers which lead to these events.

Greg has expertise in all aspects of public sector employer/employee relations and is experienced in the full range of personnel-related issues, including hiring and termination, effective evaluation practices, and documentation of employee performance. He has represented districts in numerous administrative hearings as well as in state and federal courts. Greg has extensive experience in all aspects of personnel practice, from certificated and classified employee evaluation, dismissal and discipline, to the varied categories of discrimination, such as Title VII, the Americans With Disabilities Act, and the Family Medical Leave Act.

Greg regularly advises governing boards regarding their rights, duties and responsibilities under the Brown Act, the Public Records Act and other laws regulating the business of doing the public’s business in the schools. Greg has provided in-services statewide and to individual boards on how to meet the ever-changing requirements of the Brown Act in a manner which allows a board to conduct meetings efficiently and effectively. He has also created and conducts “best practices” trainings for governance teams, assisting boards on matters such as board member duties and obligations, individual board member rights and responsibilities, and has been asked to assist in situations in which internal board relationships were at risk.

Greg is a regular and prominent speaker at the annual California School Boards Association (CSBA) Conference each December, as well as at Association of California School Administrators (ACSA) conferences, including the Negotiators Symposium, Superintendents Symposium, Personnel Institute, and Personnel Academies.

He has authored numerous articles and has been published extensively in the California Public Employee Relations Journal (CPER) including How to Negotiate Using Core Values, The Evolution of a Negotiator, Public School Negotiations: After the Gold Rush, The Negotiator: Like a Rolling Stone, Labor’s Lessons, Negotiations: A World of Difference, and The Epiphanies of Negotiations.

Greg was named one of the Best Lawyers in the Bay Area, Bay Area Magazine, Vol. I, Issue I and was honored with the 2014 California Lawyer Attorney of the Year Award in Education Law.