David Walter Girard

David Walter Girard was a partner at Girard, Edwards, Stevens & Tucker LLP, where he specialized in education law, particularly special education mediation. He served as special legal counsel to the California Department of Education and the Office of Administrative Hearings, organizing and implementing the state’s first special education mediation and hearing units and procedures, and authored California’s first special education hearing officer’s manual. He taught special education law, education law, and finance at institutions including the University of California, Santa Barbara; the University of California, Berkeley; the joint doctoral program at the University of California, Davis/Sonoma State University; Sacramento State University; the University of California, Hastings College of the Law; and the University of California, Berkeley, Boalt Hall. Girard earned a BS and MBA from Wayne State University, a JD from the University of Michigan Law School, and a PhD in education from the University of California, Berkeley.

updated 2025