Molly Watson

Molly has spent many years working on behalf of families with children with special needs. Her experiences as a teacher compelled her to open RM Warner PLC. While teaching, she witnessed firsthand some of the struggles that children with special needs and their parents endure, struggles in obtaining appropriate placements, assessments, and services. In addition to having taught both regular education and special education classes, she has worked as a job coach for developmentally disabled adults, helping them integrate into the community to live fuller, more productive and worthwhile lives. Following law school, Molly interned for Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund (DREDF). While with DREDF, she came to appreciate the power of challenging federal and state law as a means of changing the law to enhance the lives of persons with disabilities. Molly began working as a special needs attorney in 2008. More recently, she participated in a one-on-one hour-long interview with Susan Gallagher of Mental Health America, which aired on Access T.V. Dandelion Magazine, which provide information of particular interest to parents of children with special needs, interviewed her for its fall 2013 issue. In federal district court, Molly represents David Swanson, a nonverbal young man with autism and type 1 diabetes, in an appeal of a special education due process decision with related civil rights claims. David's mother's claims of disability discrimination and relation and abuse have aired on local and national television news programs. Molly is scheduled to provide audiotaped lectures to educators and possibly attorneys in December of 2015 on topics of general interest in special education law. Molly earned an undergraduate degree from UCSC, a graduate degree from UCLA, and a law degree from Golden Gate University.

• Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund (DREDF), Interned

• Audiotaped Lecturer on Topics of General Interest in Special Education Law, December 2015