McAndrews Law Offices : Special Education Lawyer in Pennsylvania : Education Law Attorney : PA
McAndrews Law Offices, P.C.

Welcome...

The McAndrews Law Offices have served the needs of clients with complex legal issues since 1983. Our lawyers maintain a national reputation in Special Education Law and Special Needs Trusts, and also serve our clientele in the more typical legal fields of Estate Planning, Personal Injury, Criminal Defense, Real Estate, and Adoption.

We limit our practice to these in order to serve the unique needs of our clients in these areas of concentration. For this reason, we do not handle such matters as divorce, child custody, bankruptcy, patent, trademark, commercial litigation and similar areas which have also become highly specialized. We provide a high level of professional and skilled representation to our clients in our concentrated areas of practice.

Spanish speaking clients are welcome. Our staff includes attorneys and support staff who are fluent in Spanish. A number of our clients speak Spanish as their primary language, and we are fully prepared to assist them in their legal needs in our areas of practice.

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Our Commitment to Service

Over the past 25 years, McAndrews Law Offices have developed a reputation for providing services to persons in need across the Delaware Valley.  Our work on behalf of individuals with disabilities frequently affords us with opportunities to obtain appropriate educational programs and access to public services which families were unable to obtain on their own. In many cases, we have provided pro bono services or representation under which this office took substantial risk in accepting legal matters for individuals who were unable to pay legal fees. To the extent reasonably possible, McAndrews Law Offices assists individuals with unique personal and financial needs to obtain an enhanced quality of life.

Our office also provides dozens of informational seminars at no charge every year to interested members of the public.

McAndrews Law Offices is committed to providing community service in Pennsylvania in a variety of means. In addition to our extensive programs of providing pro bono and low cost legal services in selected cases, we offer a wide range of seminars to community groups and parent groups to provide public education with regard to special education, estate planning, and special needs planning.

Many members of our staff provide a wide variety of community service activities. For example, our founder and managing partner, Dennis C. McAndrews, engages in the following community activities:

• Member of the Board of Directors of Mother’s Home, a shelter for homeless pregnant women;
• Member of the Board of Foundation for Learning In Tredyffrin Easttown, a private entity which serves students with needs in our firm’s home school district of Tredyffrin-Easttown;
• Coaches in the Paoli Wildcats Basketball League;
• Teacher in the “Freedom School” at Villanova University, commemorating the birthday of Martin Luther King.

A great many other members of our staff provide similar services to the local community as part of our commitment to serving the needs of our local citizens.

Tanya A. Alvarado is on the Advisory Board for Reach Out and Read (ROR) of Greater Philadelphia, a national non-profit organization in existence since 1989 and now reaching over 3 million low-income families each year. ROR was developed by pediatricians and early childhood educators who recognized that early exposure to books and reading greatly increases a child’s chance for healthy development and school success. The program provides new books to children between the ages of six months to five years at every well visit to a participating doctor, and parents are taught about the importance of reading and early language acquisition skills.

Dean M. Beer is also involved in the local community; he serves as the Director of Boy’s Travel Soccer for the Tredyffrin Easttown Soccer Association. Dean is also the Chairman of the Valor Cup Tournament, which is a soccer tournament for Hispanic youth in the Soccer and Scouting Program of the Boy Scouts of America. In Soccer and Scouting, boys learn the life-long values taught in the Scouting program and, at the same time, are taught soccer skills while participating in exciting competition. It combines the citizenship, character building, morals, and values in which Scouting has been known for the past 100 years with the competition and excitement of youth soccer.

 What's New
  • WILLS FOR LOCAL POLICE AND FIRE PERSONNEL We recently noticed that in other parts of Pennsylvania some Bar Associations have instituted a program known as “Wills for Heroes” in which young (and often inexperienced) lawyers are invited to provide free Wills and related documents to police officers and first responders. Our firm is offering such a program for Tredyffrin Police Officers and Berwyn first responders on a local level, and we are doing so through the highly experienced attorneys of our office. We expect to provide this service at no cost to about forty (40) to fifty (50) police officers and first responders over the next year. Please join us in thanking these brave men and women who serve us every day!
  • Dennis C. McAndrews has been named a "Top Lawyer" in the field of Trusts and Estates by Main Line Today Magazine The recognition, for the year 2009, resulted from a survey of hundreds of attorneys in Southeastern Pennsylvania who offered their opinions on the best attorneys among their peers. McAndrews Law Offices extends its appreciation to the attorneys who have recognized Dennis McAndrews as excelling in the field of Trusts and Estates!
  • McAndrews Law Offices Recently Won an important case in federal court regarding the statute of limitations for special education claims. In Mark I., et al. v. Central Bucks School District, Judge John R. Padova, United States District Court judge for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, overturned the holdings of a special education hearing officer and appeals panel that the two year time limitation in IDEA-2004 applied to bar compensatory education claims existing prior to July 1, 2005.  Judge Padova determined that because the time limitation in IDEA-2004 cannot be applied retroactively to claims existing before the statute’s effective date, compensatory education claims prior to July 1, 2005 are not subject to a statute of limitations.
  • McAndrews Law Offices Recently Won Significant Victory in Federal Court. McAndrews Law Offices recently gained a significant victory in federal court in Philadelphia. In Ferren C. v. The School District of Philadelphia, Judge Stewart Dalzell, United States District Court for Eastern District of Pennsylvania, ruled that the School District of Philadelphia was required to create an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) to assist a child who was entitled to three years of compensatory education beyond the age of 21.
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  • McAndrews Law Offices OPENS Northeastern PA Office.  In June, McAndrews Law Offices opened a Northeastern Pennsylvania office at 400 Spruce Street, Suite 300, Scranton, PA to serve families in Northeastern and Central Pennsylvania. Please watch our website for seminars with regard to Special Education, Special Needs Trusts, and Estate Planning in Northeastern Pennsylvania.Read More →
  • Dennis McAndrews Joins the Board of the Elder Law Section of the Pennsylvania Bar Association. Mr. McAndrews will assist the Pennsylvania Bar Association in identifying appropriate outreach activities to the Bar and general population in Pennsylvania, and will assist in developing programs to conduct this outreach.
  • Our Website Now Includes Extensive Videos. Our website now includes extensive videos regarding Estate Planning, Estate Administration, and Special Needs Trusts. Over four (4) hours of informational materials are provided in these seminars, and we invite visitors to our website to review these videos to obtain information about the process of developing appropriate estate planning documents and Special Needs Trusts, as well as administering the estates of decedents. We hope that you find these materials informative! View Videos →