Fresno Unified switches legal team in Arax defamation case

Fresno Unified is changing lawyers in the Don Arax defamation case, a move that signals the district is still bracing for a costly public fight over race, credibility and taxpayer exposure.

On May 27, the school board voted 7-0 to add Johnston and Hutchinson LLP of Los Angeles to its master legal list, replacing Fresno-based Whitney, Thompson and Jeffcoach on the Arax matter. District general counsel Mark Harris said the new firm will offer a more effective, comprehensive approach and that Thomas J. Johnston is a specialist in defamation cases. Harris also said the district is trying to control litigation costs that can keep climbing even when a public agency ultimately wins.

The financial difference is not small. According to district documents cited in the coverage of the change, Johnston and Hutchinson charges $325 to $600 an hour, compared with WTJ Law’s $300 to $400 range. That puts a concrete price on Fresno Unified’s decision to seek a different strategy in a case that has already been moving through the courts for nearly two years.

Arax filed the lawsuit in 2022 against Fresno Unified and Trustee Keshia Thomas after Thomas said in a 2022 interview that he had used the N-word against her son at a football practice. Arax has denied the allegation in court. In February 2024, the California Court of Appeal upheld a lower court’s refusal to throw out the case under anti-SLAPP law, keeping the defamation claim alive and pushing it toward trial instead of an early dismissal.

The factual dispute deepened in May 2025, when GV Wire reported that Thomas testified in a deposition that she never said Arax used the slur, a statement that sits in tension with her earlier public remarks. Fresno Unified removed Arax as Bullard High School’s football coach in 2023, and he took over the football program at Central Valley Christian in Visalia in 2024.

The board’s vote came with little public explanation from trustees. Susan Wittrup and Andy Levine declined to comment because the case is pending, and other trustees did not respond or would not answer questions. Harris said the switch was not tied to the previous firm’s recent loss in a major City of Fresno case, but the timing still lands in a moment when public agencies are watching legal exposure closely, especially after a March 2026 federal jury awarded $15.4 million against the city in a racial discrimination case.