Houck Elco, Amy L.

Profile 

 

Amy Houck Elco is a partner in the firm’s Education Law Practice Group and is based primarily in the Atlantic City office.

 

Amy serves as the lead attorney for numerous New Jersey school clients. In this role, she guides school board members and school officials through the many and varied aspects of education law that impact schools daily.

 

Before joining Cooper Levenson, Amy worked at a small law firm in Cape May County where she specialized in zoning, planning, and land use, as well as municipal law, construction, real estate and chancery practice. 

 

Amy is an Adjunct Professor, teaching school law, for the Graduate Program at Stockton University. She also is a faculty member for the Southern Regional Institute and Educational Technology Training Center at Stockton University. She teaches the school law leadership program, transgender rights, social media and harassment, intimidation and bullying seminars. 

 

Amy also teaches personnel and labor relations and negotiations for new business administrators for the New Jersey Association of School Business Officials program. 

 

Amy helped conduct seminars for employees and develop policies and procedures for compliance and investigative regulation for the hospital. Amy has also interned at the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office. Amy is admitted to practice in New Jersey and the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey. 

 

Experience 

 

She served as a judicial clerk to the Honorable Valerie H. Armstrong, Assignment Judge for Atlantic and Cape May Counties from 2002-2003. While clerking, Amy had the opportunity to be trained as a small claims mediator, and mediated cases monthly. 

 

Amy is an Adjunct Professor, teaching school law, for the Graduate Program at Stockton University. 

 

She also is a faculty member for the Southern Regional Institute and Educational Technology Training Center at Stockton University. She teaches the school law leadership program, transgender rights, social media and harassment, intimidation and bullying seminars. Amy also teaches personnel and labor relations and negotiations for new business administrators for the New Jersey Association of School Business Officials program. 

 

She provides educators with continued support, training on new laws and requirements, and developing policies and procedures together as a team. She equips school districts with effective, proactive measures to identify and resolve many potential issues before they reach litigation. Amy is available to provide prompt assistance to school administrators and board members, one of the keys to her success. 

 

Education

Amy is a graduate of Stockton University with a B.A. in Communications, and the University of Pittsburgh School of Law with a J.D. and a Certificate in Health Law. While in law school Amy interned for Magee Women’s Hospital in the legal and HIPPA compliance offices. 

 

Awards

 

Amy was recently named to the New Jersey Super Lawyer’s Rising Star list in school law. Super Lawyers, part of Thomson Reuters, selects attorneys for their “Super Lawyers” and “Rising Stars” list using “a patented multiphase selection process. Peer nominations and evaluations are combined with independent research.” 

 

Articles/Seminars

 

 Amy recently authored an article for the New Jersey School Board Association’s Monthly Magazine School Leader entitled “It Didn’t Happen In School, But…Can We Discipline?” and previously co-authored an article entitled “Border Lines” regarding school residency issues.

 

 A frequent lecturer, Amy presents on a variety of school-related issues, including staff rights and responsibilities, student discipline, negotiations, harassment, intimidation and bullying, special education matters and board ethics. 

 

In November 2014, Amy was chosen as a ‘Best of New Jersey School Board Workshop 2014’ speaker for her presentation “Can They Say That?: Board Member, Employee and Public Comment Under the Open Public Meetings Act.”

 

 Affiliations 

 

Amy has volunteered and provided pro bono work for area schools, education associations and other non-profit organizations. 

 

She is an active member in many civic and charitable organizations. 

 

• Named to the New Jersey Super Lawyers* List as a Rising Star in 2017 in the area of School Law 
• Co-Chair, Atlantic County Advisory Commission on Women
• Member, Vincent S. Haneman American Inn of Court
• Member, Atlantic and Cape May County Bar Association
• Volunteer for Let Us Eat – Please, Inc., a non-profit corporation
• Volunteer Presenter for the New Jersey Association of Educational Office Professionals
• Committee for the Captain’s Gala, Let Us Eat – Please, Inc.
• Assisting with the organizational incorporation of Education Foundations
• Volunteer Presenter for Atlantic County School Boards Association
• Volunteer Presenter for Ocean County School Boards Association
• Volunteer Presenter for New Jersey School Boards Association
• Past coordinator, Vincent J. Apruzzese Mock Trial Competition, Cape May County
• Past coach, Hammonton High School Mock Trial Team
• Past volunteer, Holocaust Victim Assets Litigation
• Past Member, Board of Directors, Stop the Violence in Atlantic County, a division of the United Way