Tracy Petznick Johnson

Ms. Johnson is a shareholder in Harbottle Law Group, where she leads the firm’s Northern California practice from her home base on the Monterey Bay. In addition to representation in special education matters before the Office of Administrative Hearings and in federal court, she regularly advises clients regarding discrimination claims, compliance complaints, and school discipline. Ms. Johnson is an active contributor to HLG’s appellate practice and has been involved in multiple precedent-setting cases within the Ninth Circuit. She is a sought-after public speaker who presents regularly on various professional development topics to districts, SELPAs, and state conferences for special educators. Finally, Ms. Johnson also serves as a contracted neutral upon request – acting as an independent hearing officer, expulsion panel counsel, or alternative dispute resolution facilitator.

Ms. Johnson earned her Bachelor’s degree from Stanford University and her JD from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, where she earned membership in the Order of the Coif. Her background and legal training covers multiple areas of children’s rights. During law school, she served as an Educational Surrogate for a foster youth with an emotional disability, represented juveniles in delinquency proceedings, represented social workers in dependency proceedings, and taught legal rights courses to detained youth. Ms. Johnson was also selected as a Bergstrom Child Welfare Law Fellow with the University of Michigan. Prior to law school, Ms. Johnson worked in grant-making with the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health, which funded effective afterschool programming for preteens.

Outside the office, Ms. Johnson can be found hiking with her family or tackling one of her many unfinished quilting projects.

Education

• Stanford University, B.A.
• University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, J.D.

Bar Admissions

• State Bar of California
• United States Supreme Court
• United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
• United States District Court, Central, Northern, Eastern and Southern Districts of California