Ellen has more than thirty years of experience with litigation and legal writing, both as an attorney and as a professor of legal writing. She is admitted to the bar in Florida, Massachusetts, New York, and Rhode Island, as well as six federal district and circuit courts. She has worked as a civil rights and disability rights attorney since 1986 when she joined the New York City Commission on Human Rights. She served as Deputy Director and then Director of the Equal Employment and Public Accommodation Division, where she oversaw the intake and investigation of discrimination complaints. She then joined New York Lawyers for the Public Interest as a staff attorney in its disability rights unit. Her work there included Burr v. Sobol, which established compensatory education as a remedy for special education and also attorneys’ fees for administrative hearings under IDEA. When NYLPI established its Disability Law Center, Ellen became Director. Under her leadership, NYLPI filed four of the first ADA Title II complaints with the U.S. Department of Justice, including a case that resulted in making the Empire State Building’s observation deck accessible. In Florida, she worked for Legal Services for Greater Miami for a year and then worked for the Advocacy Center for Persons with Disabilities (now Disability Rights Florida). There, her work included special education cases as well as class action lawsuits, including Prado-Steiman v. Bush, which resulted in a settlement that required Florida’s Medicaid program to improve and expand its Home and Community based Waiver program for people with developmental disabilities. After moving to Rhode Island, she taught legal writing at Roger Williams University School of Law and now has a private practice that includes special education. She often works with the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island, the Disability Law Center of Massachusetts, Rhode Island Legal Services, and the Rhode Island Disability Law Center, both on individual cases and on systemic law reform work including special education. Ellen is a member of the COPAA amicus committee and has co-authored many amicus briefs for COPAA

Ms. Scavongelli is a a staff attorney and has been with the EdLaw since 2012 when she joined the project as an Equal Justice Works Fellow. Ms. Scavongelli graduated Northeastern University School of Law. A recipient of a Rappaport Fellowship at the Massachusetts Office of the Child Advocate and a recipient of a Hennessy Fellowship at the Mental Health Legal Advisors Committee, Ms. Scavongelli brings a wide range of experience to the Project. In addition to serving EdLaw, Ms. Scavongelli is on the board of Bottom Line, an organization that is dedicated to helping disadvantaged students get into college and on the board of CASA, an organization that recruits, trains and supports volunteers who advocate for abused and neglected children before the Suffolk County.

Catherine Merino Reisman is a founding partner of Reisman Carolla Gran & Zuba LLP, providing consultation and guidance regarding the legal rights of children and adults with disabilities. She represents clients in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and nationally in administrative hearings as well as federal and state court. She also specializes in preparing appellate, trial briefs and closing arguments in state intermediate appellate courts, state supreme courts of appeal, and federal courts of appeal in disability rights cases. Upon graduation from law school, she was a clerk to the Honorable Edward N. Cahn, Chief Judge for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Catherine then practiced employment law at a small Philadelphia firm for several years. Before forming Reisman Carolla Gran & Zuba, she was “Of Counsel” to a regional mid-sized law firm, where she co-chaired the Special Education practice group in addition to handling appellate, commercial, and employment litigation.

Sarah is a partner in Reisman Carolla Gran & Zuba LLP. Sarah brings experience in both complex civil litigation and education to her advocacy on behalf of individuals with disabilities and their families. Before joining RCGZ, Sarah worked in the Special Education practice group at a mid-sized law firm and at a business litigation firm in Philadelphia where she developed sophisticated negotiation, counseling, and dispute resolution skills. She now concentrates her practice on vindicating the rights of students in schools, especially students with disabilities, and on related efforts to obtain appropriate services and supports for individuals with disabilities in the community. Sarah assists individuals in supporting their adult children, relatives, and friends through guardianship, powers of attorney and other legal relationships, as appropriate. Sarah represents parents in New Jersey and Pennsylvania mediations and due process hearings, original actions and appeals in the United States district courts, and appeals and arguments before the Third Circuit.

Before practicing law, Sarah taught students of all ages in a wide range of classrooms, from students entitled to special education in an urban public school to general education students at an independent day school. As an attorney, she has broadened her understanding of the needs of her clients by obtaining additional education training, including intensive training in the Orton-Gillingham approach to reading instruction.

Professional and Community Associations
Sarah is an active member of the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates (“COPAA”), a national independent, nonprofit, tax-exempt organization of attorneys, advocates and parents. She enjoys sharing her knowledge of special education law through speaking engagements, both locally and nationally, with parents, attorneys and education professionals. Sarah has led many full-day pre-conference programs and breakout sessions at Council of Parent Attorney and Advocates Conference, spoken at Lehigh’s Special Education Law Conference and Pennsylvania Bar Institute’s Exceptional Children Conference and gathered for personal conversations with local parent groups.

Sarah’s additional public service focuses on the well-being of women, children, and those who may be marginalized in the community. In 2020, along with other dedicated volunteers, she worked with municipal leaders to found the Township of Harrison Inclusion, Diversity and Equity Advisory Board, providing guidance to the Township on related issues and spearheading initiatives to make the town a more welcoming, safe, inclusive place to live, work and visit. Before that, for more than fifteen years, Sarah served on the boards of Community Treatment Solutions and Legacy Treatment Services, nonprofit mental and behavioral health providers for youth and adults throughout the community. She has been a Girl Scout troop leader and girls’ youth soccer coach, and she served as President of the Board of the Mullica Hill Women’s Triathlon Club.

Admitted to Practice
Sarah is admitted to practice in New Jersey and Pennsylvania and before the United States Courts of Appeals for the Third Circuit and the United States District Courts for the Eastern and Middle Districts of Pennsylvania and the District of New Jersey.

Education
Sarah received her J.D. degree from Yale Law School in 2002 where she was Editor-in-Chief of the Yale Journal of Law & the Humanities, President of The Initiative for Public Interest Law at Yale, and Director of the TRO Project for Battered Women. She earned a B.A. degree summa cum laude in the Honors Program at The College of New Jersey in 1999, where she majored in English and minored in Psychology, with studies in Elementary Education.