Member
Edmund J. O'Meally
Mr. O’Meally is an equity member and Chair of the Labor, Employment and Education department at PK Law. Mr. O’Meally has worked closely with superintendents, boards of education, private schools, and private sector employers for over 36 years on a wide-variety of matters including collective bargaining, employment litigation, Title IX, civil rights litigation, construction and procurement issues, and Open Meetings Act compliance. A 1984 graduate of the University of Maryland School of Law where he served as Executive Editor of the Maryland Law Review, Mr. O’Meally clerked for the judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit upon his graduation. Mr. O’Meally is an Adjunct Professor of School Law at Johns Hopkins University, Goucher College, McDaniel College, and Morgan State University and has given numerous presentations on employment and education issues for the North American Association of Education Negotiators, the Education Law Association, the Maryland Association of Boards of Education, the Maryland Negotiations Service, the Association of School Business Officials, the Public School Superintendents Association of Maryland, the Office of Administrative Hearings, MICPEL, and other groups. Since 2006, Mr. O’Meally has authored the chapters on “Employee Relations and Rights” and “Employee Discipline and Discharge” in the annual editions of the Maryland School Law Deskbook published by LexisNexis. Mr. O’Meally was the chief negotiator of the innovative performance based collective bargaining agreement between Baltimore City and the Baltimore Teachers Union as well as several other performance based collective bargaining agreements for non-certificated employees. Mr. O’Meally is one of the few negotiators in the country who has successfully negotiated this type of agreement and is available to serve as a consultant or negotiator to school systems across the country.
Mr. O’Meally is available to speak on a variety of labor and education issues, including his experience negotiating performance based collective bargaining agreements.
Education
- University of Maryland School of Law, J.D. May 1984
- Maryland Law Review, Executive Editor, (1983-84)
- Tulane University School of Law, (1981-82)
- Frostburg State College, B.A. May 1980
Bar Admissions
- Court of Appeals of Maryland, 1985
- United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, 1985
- United States District Court for the District of Maryland, 1986
Bar Associations
- Member, American Bar Association
- Member, Maryland State Bar Association
Community Involvement
- Board Member, Alzheimer’s Association Greater Maryland Chapter
- President/Chair of the Board, Carroll County Youth Service Bureau
- Community Leader Board Chair, The Hill Y in Westminster
- Former Webelos Den Leader – Cub Scout Pack 150, Gamber, MD
- Former Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Salvation Army, Carroll County Service Center
- Former Chairman of the Board and President, Westminster Jaycees, Inc.
- Most Outstanding Young Westminster Resident, Westminster Jaycees (1997)
- Former State Legal Director, Maryland Jaycees, Inc.
- Former Member of the Board of Directors for Dulaney Station, Inc. (a division of Sheppard Pratt Health System)
- Former Member of the Board of Directors for Junior Achievement – Carroll County
- Vice-Chairman Frostburg State College Senate (1979-80)
- Frostburg State College Student Government Director of Forum Affairs (1979-80)
Additional Information
- Judicial Law Clerk
- United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, (1984-1986)
- Teaching Experience:
- Adjunct Instructor – School Law, McDaniel College
- Adjunct Instructor – School Law, Goucher College
- Adjunct Instructor – School Law, Johns Hopkins University
- Received “Instructor of the Year” award from the Maryland Police and Correctional Training Commission (2015)
- Selected to The Best Lawyers in America® for Education Law 2012-2024
- Best Lawyers in America – Education Law: Baltimore Area – Lawyer of the Year 2018, 2020, 2024 and 2025
- Selected for inclusion in Super Lawyers, 2016, 2019-2020, 2022 – 2025
- Member, National School Boards Association Council of School Attorneys
- Member, Maryland Council of Local School Board Attorneys
- Distinguished Service Award, Maryland Negotiation Service (October, 2005)
- Sigma Tau Delta English Honors Society, (1980)
- Phi Alpha Theta History Honors Society (1980)
- AV® Preeminent™ by Martindale-Hubbell
- The Maryland Daily Record 2023 Employment Law Power List, Recipient
Representative Publications
- Co-Author – Maryland School Law Deskbook, (LexisNexis, 2006-2021 editions)
- In Defense of 24/7 Extracurricular Eligibility Policies, Inquiry & Analysis (NSBA Council of School Attorneys, July 2007)
- Brown v. Board of Education: A Celebration For Today’s Children, Baltimore Daily Record, (May 1, 2004)
- Student Discipline, in Violence in Schools (Professional Development Network, Feb. 11, 2000)
- Maryland Special Education Procedural Safeguards, in Special Education Law in Maryland: Navigating the New Regulations (Professional Development Network, Dec. 8, 1999)
- Teacher Recruitment and Shortages: Legal and Collective Bargaining Implications, presented at combined meeting of Maryland Negotiation Service and Maryland-District of Columbia Association of School Business Officials, Annapolis, Maryland (Nov. 19, 1999)
- Searches of Maryland Students: Fighting the War On Weapons and Drugs in our Public Schools, at Public Schools After Littleton: The Legal Aspects of School Violence Seminar, Linthicum, Maryland (Sept. 17, 1999)
- Sexual Harassment in the Public Schools, in 13th Annual Education Law Institute (The Maryland Institute for Continuing Professional Education of Lawyers, Inc. “MICPEL”, June 26, 1998)
- First Amendment and Other Constitutional Issues, in School Law in Maryland (National Business Institute, February 24, 1998)
- Religion in the Public Schools: Maintaining the Neutral Balance, in Current Issues in Education Law in Maryland (National Business Institute, August 26, 1997)
AV® Preeminent™ by Martindale-Hubbell
Best Lawyers
Super Lawyers
Edmund J. O'Meally
Member
