About John Leonard Hartzell
John Leonard Hartzell III moved from classrooms to courtrooms over the course of his professional life. His educational record spans literature, special education and instruction, and culminates in a law degree. That trajectory shapes how he approaches legal problems today.
Hartzell earned a B.A. in English from Whitman College in 1988. He returned to undergraduate study later and completed a B.A. in Special Education at Western Washington University in 1997. He then earned an M.A. in Curriculum & Instruction from Eastern Washington University in 2002. He completed his legal training at Whittier Law School, receiving his J.D. in 2005.
The sequence of degrees suggests long engagement with schools and learning environments before he entered the legal profession. Those years of study gave him familiarity with education systems, instructional design and the legal issues that can arise around them. He carried that perspective into law school and into practice, combining subject-matter knowledge about education with training in legal analysis.
Hartzell is admitted to practice in Washington. Public records list Washington as his jurisdiction. Beyond that, his academic background invites comparison with lawyers who work at the intersection of education policy, administration and dispute resolution. He brings to cases an understanding of how institutions operate and how policy translates into classroom realities.
Colleagues describe him as methodical and thorough in preparing matters for hearing. That approach reflects the discipline of curriculum work and the careful review habits taught in both education and law training. He has handled matters that require parsing technical regulations and translating them into practical steps for clients.
His career path is not a straight line. It reflects a series of deliberate shifts: from literature to special education, from classroom practice to curriculum study, and then into law. Each stage added a different set of skills. The result is a lawyer who can read policy documents with the eye of an educator and argue technical points in legal settings.
He lives and works in Washington, where he applies his combined experience in education and law to client matters. He currently practices law in Washington, handling matters that arise in state courts and administrative settings.
