Attorney Jennifer Laviano

While pursuing their entitlements under the IDEA, our clients are often forced to fund significant costs for their children: evaluations, tutoring, consultants, therapies, co-pays, adaptive equipment, and even tuition. Adding lawyer’s fees on top of this can be cost-prohibitive for many families.

We get it.

By creating a boutique “virtual law practice,” The Law Offices of Laviano and Gagne, LLC is able to focus resources on our legal services, rather than the “bricks and mortar” of a traditional law office.  While we have the support of an on-site Office Manager and Legal Assistant, our attorneys and special education advocates are located throughout the State, ready to serve you with as little travel cost as possible. In addition, our use of state-of-the art technology ensures that your  information is secure, efficient, and accessible to you through a “client portal,” through which you can review your child’s educational records and manage your invoices with us.

Attorney Jennifer Laviano is in private practice in Connecticut. Ms. Laviano holds an undergraduate degree in English Literature from Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York, and she earned her Juris Doctorate, cum laude, from Quinnipiac University School of Law in Hamden, Connecticut.

Read more on how Attorney Laviano became a special education lawyer here:  A Father’s Legacy to Special Education Advocacy

Ms. Laviano has dedicated her law practice entirely to the  representation of children and adolescents with disabilities whose families are in disagreement with their public school districts. Her representation of children with special needs encompasses the full spectrum of Civil Rights advocacy under the IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act), from attendance at IEP Team meetings and  Mediation, to zealous and experienced litigation in Due Process Hearings and Federal Court.

Ms. Laviano is a regular presenter, both locally and nationally, on the subject of the special legal rights of children with disabilities and their entitlement to receive a Free and Appropriate Public  Education. Ms. Laviano is on the Board of Directors of COPAA, the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, which is the leading national voice on special education rights and advocacy.

Ms. Laviano represents children with special needs throughout the State of Connecticut.

Attorney Melissa Gagne holds an undergraduate degree from the Boston Conservatory of Music, a Master’s Degree in English from Connecticut College, a Sixth Year Degree in Education Leadership from  Sacred Heart University, and she earned her Juris Doctorate, cum laude, from Quinnipiac University School of Law. Prior to attending law school, Attorney Gagne spent twenty years in public education as a teacher, assistant principal, and principal.

Attorney Gagne is a Special Education Lawyer who has dedicated her law practice to the representation of children and adolescents with disabilities whose families are in disagreement with their public school districts. Attorney Gagne also represents students at Expulsion Hearings and in Title IX investigations.  

Attorney Gagne is the Executive Vice President of the Board of Directors for CCARC, a nonprofit agency that provides day and residential services to adults with disabilities in Connecticut. Attorney Gagne is also on the Board of Directors for Special Education Equity for Kids of Connecticut  (SEEK), a nonprofit in Connecticut that lobbies at the State Capitol to improve special education on behalf of Connecticut’s Special Education  students.

Attorney Gagne is married and has three children. Her youngest son, Ryan, has profound Autism.