Atlanta Public Schools has named a veteran education lawyer as its new top attorney.

Nina Gupta, a partner at Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough since 2013, has been appointed as outside general counsel, succeeding Glenn Brock, also a Nelson Mullins partner who has opted to refocus his practice after five years at the legal helm of the 52,000-student system.

Nina Gupta (Courtesy photo)

“I’m very excited about this opportunity,” Gupta said in an email. “As a city resident, both of my children are APS graduates. My passion for public education has only grown throughout my career of working with public schools. I owe my own excellent public education for opening doors that would otherwise have been forever closed, and I consider myself very fortunate to be a small part of supporting the mission to provide an excellent public education for all students.”

In her new role, Gupta said one of her top priorities will be to continue to meet and work directly with principals throughout the district, which is made up of 91 schools and programs. Some of the most pressing issues the department faces, she added, include employment, real estate acquisitions and large-scale procurement, as well as complicated issues surrounding public finance and partnerships.

The school district employs an internal legal assistant who manages the organization’s relationships with outside law firms, Gupta said.

“While serving as outside general counsel to APS, I will continue to work on other matters at Nelson Mullins,” she said. “This is an arrangement that APS has had for several years now. The work that Nelson Mullins does for APS is no different from how we have served other large public school districts in Georgia for over 30 years.”

Prior to joining Nelson Mullins, Gupta was an attorney for nearly 10 years at Brock, Clay, Calhoun & Rogers, a Marietta firm that Brock co-founded with his education practice that he later took, along with six lawyers, including Gupta, to Nelson Mullins.