McAndrews Law Offices : Dennis C. McAndrews, Esquire
McAndrews Law Offices, P.C.

Dennis C. McAndrews, Esquire

Dennis C. McAndrews is the founding shareholder of McAndrews Law Offices, P.C. Mr. McAndrews graduated with a double major in Education and Political Science from Villanova University and received his law degree from the Villanova School of Law.

  • Professional History

He has worked for over twenty-five years in the public and private sectors in several roles in the field of disability law. Mr. McAndrews regularly represents individuals with disabilities and their families in a variety of areas, including special education matters, special needs trusts, guardianship, estate planning, right-to-treatment cases, and injury cases. He frequently serves as a consultant to other public and private attorneys with regard to disability and special education issues.

He has served as Executive Director and Staff Counsel to two select committees of the Pennsylvania State Senate which evaluated Pennsylvania’s system of care for the mentally retarded and drafted proposed legislation designed to modernize Pennsylvania’s legal basis for the provision of care to the mentally retarded. Mr. McAndrews served for fifteen years as a Special Education Hearing Officer for the Pennsylvania Department of Education, and was regularly assigned to determine the appropriate educational classification, program, and placement of school age children with disabilities. In 1990, he was selected to serve as one of the first appellate hearing officers in Pennsylvania under new Department of Education regulations. During his sixteen years as a prosecutor in the Philadelphia area, and thereafter in criminal defense matters, he handled many cases involving defenses of mental disability. He was a special prosecutor in the murder trial of Commonwealth vs. John E. duPont.

Mr. McAndrews is an instructor of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties and Criminal Justice at Villanova University. He is a frequent lecturer to national conferences, Bar Association Committees and advocacy groups in Pennsylvania concerning estate planning, special education, and the rights of the disabled. He has authored numerous articles regarding these topics. He served for a decade as Chairman of The Disability Law Committee of the Delaware County Bar Association.

  • Bar Admissions

Pennsylvania

  • Practice Areas

Special Education Law

Special Needs Trusts

Guardianship

Estate Planning

Estate Administration

Right-to-Treatment Cases

 

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 What's New
  • McAndrews Law Offices recently won two important victories on behalf of children with disabilities in federal court. In two separate cases, the federal court in Philadelphia overturned decisions of the Pennsylvania Appeals Panel and found in favor of children with disabilities and their families.Read More →
  • McAndrews Law Offices Have Speakers Available for your organization. We provide dozens of seminars and presentations each year to relevant organizations in the field of Special Education, Estate Planning, Special Needs Trusts. Our attorneys regularly speak at national, state, and local organizations such as parent groups, Bar Associations, community organizations, advocacy groups, and similar organizations. These presentations are provided at no cost, are educational in nature, and no marketing of our services is presented. If you would like to schedule a speaker for your organization, please contact Sarah Locher at 610-648-9300, and we will be happy to arrange a presentation for you.Read More →
  • Services for Exceptional Children in Private Schools On September 26, 2007, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court issued a long-awaited decision in Lower Merion School District v. Doe. Read More →
  • Federal Court in Pennsylvania Awards Compensatory Education in a Monetary Fund The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania recently found that a school district’s failure to provide an appropriate educational program required an award of compensatory education, and held that the award of compensatory education must be placed in a fund with a specified monetary amount for the child. Read More →

“Our son was a gifted student who always did well in school. However, he began having real difficulty in going to school and was diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder and school phobia...”

“ A happy footnote to our case: Our son graduated summa cum laude from college and has been accepted for graduate study at the University of Chicago.”

— Mr. and Mrs. B.

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