Working Together: The Parent-Attorney Relationship

Description

Working Together: The Parent-Attorney Relationship
Presented By: Matthew Engel

There are many potential challenges for both parents and attorneys in their working relationship.  To work through these challenges, it is important to understand the different perspectives of parents and attorneys.

• For parents: learn about due process hearings, including how attorneys and hearing officers analyze the strengths and weaknesses of a case. 
• For advocates: learn about the differences in how parents and attorneys analyze the strengths and weaknesses of a case. 
• For attorneys: learn about how to understand the concerns and frustrations that parents have experienced prior to retaining an attorney. 

About The Presenter:
Matthew Engel is an attorney with more than thirty years of experience working with clients on civil rights issues involving persons with disabilities, with a primary focus on special education law.  Prior to entering law school, he worked as a Child Advocate for the Massachusetts Office for Children.  
Following his first year as a full-time law student at Suffolk University, he switched to part-time night school so that he could work full-time as a legal advocate with the Disability Law Center in Boston. After graduating and passing the Massachusetts Bar Exam, Attorney Engel relocated to Western Massachusetts for a staff attorney position in the Northampton office of the Disability Law Center.  He was later promoted to a senior attorney position which he held until he left to open his own private practice in education and disability law. In addition to representing parents and students in special education cases,

Attorney Engel has presented numerous trainings on special education law at conferences, seminars and for parent organizations, including the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, Massachusetts Department of Children and Families, The Association for the Severely Handicapped, The National Disability Rights Network, The Federation for Children with Special Needs and Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education.  He has authored or co-authored chapters in several books, including publications by Mass Continuing Legal Education and Boston Children’s Hospital.