Educational Resources for Every Child

For the past couple of years, I’ve been working with other Kirkland attorneys to represent families with children who aren’t receiving the resources they need to succeed in the classroom. Most often the goal of these cases is to get them an individualized education plan (IEP), which they’re entitled to by law. The end result is that students get the services they need and the school that failed the student is required to implement other remedial measures.

This work is meaningful to me because we’re representing a student whose story we learn and get to tell through the case and, as a result, we achieve concrete benefits for the student. This work also resonates with me as a mother with kids in high school and middle school. I know I would be so grateful for legal help to get my child the educational services they’re entitled to.

We work with Disability Rights Texas, which sends us cases and then collaborates with us throughout the matter. They are the experts in both the facts of each student’s case and the underlying law (such as the Texas Education Code, Texas Administrative Code and Individuals with Disabilities Education Act). We have the privilege of working with them to package all the information into a compelling narrative for our complaint to the Texas Education Agency.

The associates who have worked on these cases with me have taken the lead from the start. They review the investigative file, collaborate closely with the Disability Rights Texas team to put together the complaint, and then respond to requests for additional information or positions taken by the school. They truly own the case and earn the outcome.

I’ve been practicing law for more than 20 years, and for many of those have had a busy pro bono practice. As soon as I jump into a new pro bono matter, I am reminded how gratifying the work is. Because I spend all my professional time with other lawyers, it’s easy to forget that, to the outside world, being a lawyer is a superpower. Pro bono work gives me an opportunity to exercise that superpower in a meaningful way.