Andru Volinsky

Andru H. Volinsky (born March 13, 1956) is an American Democratic politician and member of the Executive Council of New Hampshire, representing the 2nd District since 2017. Volinsky is an attorney who served as lead counsel in the landmark decisions in Claremont School District v. Governor of New Hampshire, in which the New Hampshire Supreme Court recognized a constitutional right to a public education (1993) and held New Hampshire's school funding system unconstitutional (1995).

Volinsky won re-election to a second term on the Executive Council in 2018 in an election that gave control of the Council to the Democrats.

Volinsky has indicated he is "likely" to seek the 2020 Democratic nomination for New Hampshire Governor. On July 1, 2019, he announced the formation of an "exploratory committee" for a possible gubernatorial campaign.

Volinsky was born in New York City and lives in rural East Concord, New Hampshire with his wife, Amy Goldstein, a corporate attorney. He graduated from the George Washington University National Law Center in 1980. Amy graduated from the Georgetown Law Center, also in 1980. Volinsky attended Woodrow Wilson High School in Levittown, Pennsylvania, graduating in 1973. He graduated from the University of Miami, which he attended on scholarship, magna cum laude in 1976 with a degree in psychology.

Volinsky is an experienced commercial and employment litigator recognized for excellence in many areas of practice. He has worked with the northern New England firm of Bernstein Shur since 2004. During his time with the firm, he started and managed the firm's Manchester, New Hampshire office, served multiple terms on the firm's board of directors and was the law firm's general counsel for five years. Volinsky has been regularly recognized for his legal work by Best Lawyers© in the areas of commercial litigation, employment law, education law, and in criminal law. He has also been recognized for his litigation practice in Chambers and Partners© where he is noted to be a "skilled advocate" and recognized for his "tremendous mind."

Upon graduation from law school, Volinsky and Goldstein moved from Washington, D.C. to Knoxville, Tennessee where Volinsky became a clinical instructor at the University of Tennessee School of Law. He taught courses in criminal law and procedure and began defending death penalty cases as a faculty member.

The Death Penalty

Volinsky has continued to defend against the death penalty for the remainder of his career. In 1986, when he was 30, he argued the case of Gray v. Mississippi before the United States Supreme Court and won the reversal of Mr. Gray's sentence of death. Volinsky current represents Jimmy Fletcher Meders in a death penalty case that originated in Georgia. He was part of the effort to repeal the death penalty in New Hampshire. The repeal effort required an override of a gubernatorial veto.

Regaining Government Overpayments

Significant cases litigated by Volinsky include his representation of the New Hampshire Secretary of State in the Secretary's effort to fairly regulate self-insured public risk pools under N.H.R.S.A. 5-B. The work of Volinsky's legal team resulted in the return of more than $50 million in overpaid premiums from the Local Government Center Risk Pools to New Hampshire municipalities and school districts. Volinsky and his team negotiated additional refunds of almost $30 million from two other risk pools located in New Hampshire.

Protecting Pensions

In 2014, Volinsky represented four large public unions who sought to challenge the State's effort to shift increased pension costs to existing employees. The New Hampshire Supreme Court upheld the cost shift even though its judicial members enjoyed constitutional protections against the very same cost-shifting.

School Funding

Volinsky is best known for his legal work as lead counsel in a series of cases known as Claremont School District v. Governor of New Hampshire in which the petitioners, who were school children, taxpayers and school districts, successfully challenged the way in which New Hampshire funds its schools. The litigation established that children in New Hampshire are entitled to a state-funded public education as a fundamental constitutional right. The principle decisions were issued in 1993 and 1997. The fundamental rights established in the Claremont cases have never been completely implemented, resulting in the NH Court deciding again in 2019 that the state failed to meet its constitutional obligation. In 2018, Volinsky and his Claremont litigation colleague, John Tobin, began a lengthy process of informing voters about the New Hampshire school funding system through a series of forums called, "Education Funding 101." Volinsky also represented the Dover School District in 2016 and won a return of more than $1.5 million in unconstitutionally withheld school aid.

Volinsky has received a number of awards and accolades. He has twice been named a Friend of Education by NEA-NH. On its 25th anniversary of operations, New Hampshire Public Radio named Volinsky one of the 25 most influential people in the state (25 in 25). The Concord Monitor named Volinsky one of the 100 people who shaped the 20th century in New Hampshire. Volinsky, a former legal counsel for and board member of the ACLU's New Hampshire affiliate, received that organizations prestigious "Bill of Rights Award" in 1997, along with his Claremont legal team members. In 2018, Volinsky and his wife, Amy, received the Volunteer Hero Award from the Capital Region Food Program for their more than 20 years of service.

In addition to his service on the ACLU of New Hampshire board, Volinsky was also a board member and strategic planning chair for the Manchester Community Health Center, the federally qualified, poverty oriented healthcare provider in New Hampshire's largest city. Volinsky is an alumnus of Leadership New Hampshire, the North Carolina Outward Bound School and the Peace and Conflicts Study Program of the University of Pittsburgh.

• New Hampshire's Education-Funding Litigation: Claremont School District v. Governor, 635 A.2d 1375 (N.H. 1993),modified, 703 A.2d 1353 (N.H. 1997) Nebraska Law Review, Vol 83, Issue 1, Article 7