WBK - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Partner
- Solicitor for Career
Annemarie K. Harr Eagle became a Partner with Weiss Burkardt Kramer in October of 2022. She joined Weiss Burkardt Kramer LLC as an Associate in October of 2015. Her practice of education law is focused on special education, student services and general solicitor work including school employment law. Annemarie serves as the Chair of the Special Education Law Group at Weiss Burkardt Kramer.
Annemarie serves as the Solicitor for Career and Technology Centers as well as School Districts across Western Pennsylvania. In addition, she routinely represents School Districts in Special Education and Section 504 Litigation, Employment matters and Federal Civil Rights Litigation. Annemarie routinely provides Professional Development trainings for school district teachers and administrators. In addition, Annemarie has served as an Adjunct Professor of Special Education Law at Duquesne University School of Law.
Before receiving her Juris Doctorate from Duquesne University School of Law in 2015, Annemarie received her Bachelor of Arts degree in English with minors in Theology and Philosophy from St. John's University, and then went on to receive her Masters of Arts Degree in Theology with a focus in Social Justice. While in law school, Annemarie served as the Executive Editor for Joule: Energy and Environmental Law Journal, was President of the Education Law Society, received a CALI Award for Excellence in the area of Immigration Law, and was an active member of the Law School's nationally recognized Trial Advocacy Team, competing in Trial Advocacy competitions across the Country. Prior to joining Weiss Burkardt Kramer LLC as a law clerk in 2014, Annemarie interned at KidsVoice, as well as the Education Law Center where she focused her research on issues surrounding school funding, school discipline, the education of students experiencing homelessness and school district compliance with the McKinney-Vento Act, and the education of English Language Learners.
Annemarie is admitted to practice in the Courts of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the United
States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania. She is a member of the Pennsylvania Bar
Job Titles:
- Associate at Weiss Burkardt Kramer LLC
Elizabeth P. Sattler is an Associate at Weiss Burkardt Kramer LLC, having joined the firm in January 2023. She focuses on taxation matters, overseeing the firm's tax collection department. Elizabeth also represents school districts in property tax assessment and exemption matters, while also assisting our municipal and school district clients with general solicitor issues.
Prior to joining WBK, Elizabeth worked with a regional firm in its Municipal and School Section, concentrating on tax collection, assessment, and solicitor representation.
Elizabeth received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the Pennsylvania State University, and she received her Juris Doctorate from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law in 2006. She is admitted to practice in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania. Elizabeth is a member of the Pennsylvania Bar Association and the Allegheny County Bar Association.
Ira Weiss is a nationally known public sector legal authority with across-the-board experience in municipal, education, and tax law. The founder of the Law Offices of Ira Weiss and a Partner with Weiss Burkardt Kramer LLC, Ira has served public entities for more than four decades.
Ira's achievements have been recognized with many awards including the Distinguished Achievement in Law Award from Tri-State Area School Study Council in 2012 and the President's Award for Distinguished Career Achievement by the Pennsylvania School Boards Solicitors Association in 2008.
Ira has been extremely active in the training of professional educators as an Adjunct Professor of Administrative and Policy Studies in the School of Education at the University of Pittsburgh. He and members of Weiss Burkardt Kramer LLC have designed programs and served as instructors for the Tri-State School Study Council of the University of Pittsburgh.
Ira was appointed to the Pennsylvania General Assembly's Legislative Audit Advisory Commission and served on the Board of Directors of the Education Policy and Leadership Center. He continues to work closely with the state legislature participating in several legislative study commissions involving taxation and being instrumental in advancing corrective legislation concerning municipal and school statutory issues.
Ira has decades of experience with collective bargaining for school districts.
Ira has been elected as a Fellow in the Academy of Trial Lawyers of Allegheny County. He has also been named a "Pennsylvania Super Lawyer" each year from 2005 to the present in the fields of schools and education. This status ranks him among the top five percent of the 45,000 lawyers practicing in Pennsylvania.
Ira was recently included in the 2025 edition of The Best Lawyers in America® for Education and Municipal Law.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Allegheny County Bar Association
- Partner at Weiss Burkardt Kramer LLC
Jocelyn P. Kramer is a Partner at Weiss Burkardt Kramer LLC who practices school and education law exclusively. Jocelyn's primary practice areas are special education, student services and school employment law. She serves as Deputy Solicitor for the School District of Pittsburgh and Solicitor for Peters Township School District, Upper St. Clair School District, and West Jefferson Hills School District.
Jocelyn was honored to receive the 2016 Distinguished Achievement in Law award from the University of Pittsburgh's Tri-State Study Council and was named a 2016 Fast Tracker by the Pittsburgh Business Times.
Jocelyn is a member of the Allegheny County Bar Association, the Pennsylvania Bar Association, and the Legal Services for Exceptional Children Committee of the Pennsylvania Bar Association. She is the immediate past-Chair for the ACBA's School and Municipal Law Section and serves on the nominating committee for the section. She presents continuing legal education and programs for professional educators on behalf of the Pennsylvania Bar Institute, the National Business Institute, and LRP Publications and is a frequent presenter for the University of Pittsburgh's Tri-State Study Council.
Jocelyn is admitted to practice in the Courts of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, and the Supreme Court of the United States. She graduated Cum Laude from the University of Pittsburgh and received her Juris Doctor from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law in 2004.
Jocelyn was recently included in the 2025 edition of The Best Lawyers in America® for Education Law.
Job Titles:
- Associate
- Associate at Weiss Burkardt Kramer LLC
Lynne P. Sherry is an Associate at Weiss Burkardt Kramer LLC, having joined the firm in August 2018. Her practice focuses on school law with a concentration in special education law and student services, representing school districts in special education due process hearings and school discipline hearings.
Prior to joining WBK, Lynne was the Supervising Attorney for the Dependency Division of the Allegheny County Office of Conflict Counsel, where she represented hundreds of abused and neglected children. In that role, she was also appointed as Educational Decision Maker for many of her clients, responsible for making all educational decisions, including special education and early intervention. Lynne also represented students in school discipline and school transfer matters, truancy proceedings, and at IEP meetings. She was a stakeholder of the Children's Roundtable, a statewide program launched by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court with a goal of ensuring that all children achieve timely permanency. Lynne was a member of the Allegheny County Roundtable's Educational Success and Truancy Prevention (ESTP) Workgroup, focused on improving educational stability and success for court-involved youth.
Lynne received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Social Work with a minor in Spanish from Providence College in 2005, where she graduated summa cum laude. In 2009, she was the first student to graduate from the University of Pittsburgh's dual degree program in Law and Social Work, where she was Order of the Coif and Articles Editor for the University of Pittsburgh Law Review. Lynne was the recipient of the Law School's Community Service Award as well as CALI Excellence for the Future awards in Legal Research & Writing; Ethics of Lawyering; Race, Religion & Law; and, Human Behavior & Law.
In addition to her legal practice, Lynne is a Fox Chapel Area Youth Soccer volunteer coach. She resides in Aspinwall with her husband and three children.
Job Titles:
- Solicitor
- Partner at Weiss Burkardt Kramer LLC
Megan M. Turnbull is a Partner at Weiss Burkardt Kramer LLC, where she works with municipalities, school districts, and nonprofits in the role of Solicitor, Labor Counsel, and Special Counsel. Additionally, she manages and oversees the firm's Tax Assessment and Tax Collection practice groups.
Megan represents public schools in all aspects of governance, operation, and finance. She specializes in managing the labor and employment matters of these clients, and she serves as special counsel for investigative and reporting purposes. Megan assists clients to improve organizational communication competencies, conflict resolution, and goal setting.
Megan is an experienced municipal solicitor, who presently serves as legal counsel to several boroughs, civil service and planning commissions. She has a particular focus on blight and redevelopment where she seeks creative, sustainable solutions to improve communities. She has served as Special Blight Counsel to Allegheny County communities and has offered trainings through the Congress of Neighboring Communities (CONNECT) and other organizations.
In May 2022, Megan was elected as the Chairwoman of the Pennsylvania Bar Association's Municipal Law Section, which connects municipal solicitors across the Commonwealth. Beginning in January 2023, she will begin a two-year term as the (W-2) Sectional Director for the Pennsylvania School Board Solicitors Association (PSBSA). Megan is an active member of the Allegheny County Bar Association, where she has served as the Chair of the School and Municipal Section and the Political Action Committee. She is a Fellow to the Allegheny Bar Foundation, which provides legal support to indigent and underrepresented persons in our community.
Megan is admitted to practice in the Courts of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, and the United States Supreme Court. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Penn State University, and her Juris Doctor from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law in 2004.
In addition to her legal practice, she is a member of the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy Board of Directors and loves to sing in community choirs. She resides in Franklin Park with her husband, Amitava, and their three children.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Solicitor for the Borough of McKees Rocks
Michelle serves as the Assistant Solicitor for the Borough of McKees Rocks and provides municipal law services to the many other municipalities that the firm represents, including blight abatement, contract negotiations and development, real estate transactions, employment matters, and tax collection services. In addition, she routinely assists school districts involved in special education and Section 504 litigation and employment matters.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Allegheny County Bar Association
- Officer for the School District of Pittsburgh
Nicole Wingard Williams rejoined the Law Offices of Ira Weiss, now Weiss Burkardt Kramer LLC, as an Associate after previously practicing at the firm in 2006 and 2007. Nicole's practice focuses on school law and municipal law.
Prior to returning to WBK, Nicole was employed at a large law firm where she conducted due diligence for mergers with other law firms, advised on potential ethical and legal conflicts of interest in new business intake, and prepared conflict waivers for clients.
Currently, Nicole serves as the Open Records Officer for the School District of Pittsburgh and routinely advises clients on all aspects of the Right-to-Know Law, including compliance matters. She represents clients in proceedings before the Office of Open Records, the State entity charged with ensuring compliance with the Right-to-Know Law, and in the Court of Common Pleas. Additionally, she regularly assists school district clients with ongoing policy review and revision to ensure compliance with current laws and regulations. Nicole also guides clients regarding background check and reporting requirements, as well as Sunshine Act compliance, student matters, and internal investigations.
During her time at WBK, Nicole has frequently written and presented Professional Development trainings to clients, and has presented for the University of Pittsburgh's Tri-State Area School Study Council. She also coordinates the firm's quarterly newsletter and information letters for clients on breaking legal updates.
Nicole is a member of the Allegheny County Bar Association and is admitted to practice in the courts of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Nicole graduated with distinction from the Pennsylvania State University in 2001 with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology. She received her Juris Doctorate from the University of Pittsburgh in 2004 where she was the recipient of the Community Service Award, as well as the CALI Excellence for the Future awards in Sports & the Law and Sales.
Job Titles:
- Partner at Weiss Burkardt Kramer LLC
Rebecca Heaton Hall is a Partner at Weiss Burkardt Kramer LLC. She concentrates her practice on education law with a primary focus on the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. She is primarily known for her research and work on Emotional Disturbance and Social Maladjustment. She has co-authored a book titled Assessment and Identification of Students with Emotional Disturbance and Behavioral Needs (LRP Publications, 2020).
Rebecca has a diverse legal background that has provided her with the opportunity to serve as a surrogate parent in Pennsylvania schools, educational advocate, parent attorney, school district solicitor, and educational consultant. She uses her diverse background to provide our clients with a unique advantage and perspective. Rebecca routinely defends school districts in complex due process hearings and in the state and federal courts in the Commonwealth.
Rebecca is a frequent lecturer on legal updates regarding the IDEIA and Section 504. She has written extensively on legal compliance in schools for students with disabilities and has formed a unique research, and advocacy approach with Dr. Jessica Dirsmith, D.Ed., NCSP. She and Dr. Dirsmith actively research to find innovative methods to assist schools in targeting the social, emotional, and behavioral needs of students. Their ongoing research efforts have gained national and international traction and focuses on prevention and interdisciplinary collaboration. Their research has been presented at Seitoku University in Tokyo, Japan, at the 40th International School Psychology Association, the University of Basel, Switzerland for the 41 st International School Psychology Association, the Association of School Psychologists of Pennsylvania, the National Association of School Psychologists, LRP Institute, and numerous other venues. Her research was highlighted by the United States Department of Civil Rights in its July 2019 briefing to the President, Vice-President, Speaker of the House, and Senate Majority Leader.
In 2006, Rebecca received her Juris Doctorate from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. She graduated cum laude at West Liberty State College where she received a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration. Rebecca is admitted to practice law in the state courts of Pennsylvania, the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania and the Supreme Court of the United States.