麻豆传媒

Jim is the Executive Director of the Special Education Law Division, for almost twenty years he was the Ex. Director of the Special Education Law Division for the Peter D. Collisson Prof. Corp. law firm. He was ask to testified before Congress regarding the re-authorization of IDEA. Jim convinced all of the attorneys and legal team to sue the Governor of California, Department of Public Health and Tony Thurmond Superintendent Ca, Dept of Education. For failing to provide Special Education Services in Students IEPs during Covid19 in violation of Federal and State laws. Which has lead to a Settlement with the Ca. Governor, and a 9th Cir. Lawsuit for 800,000 Students with Special needs. This lawsuit could assist 7 million people effected by disabilities across the Country.  Jim orchestrated the third largest settlement, in California鈥檚 (OAH) Office Of Administrative Hearing鈥檚 history. He is one of the top legal minds regarding Special education. He has special knowledge of Autism, Educational Law, Autism services, and works with many of the top Educational Consultants, Psychologists, and Professors from around the country. He is the former National Development Coordinator for TASH. He has advised Congressional members, Governors, U.S. Senators and White House Cabinet members regarding disabilities. Jim鈥檚 expertise is in recommending a precise strategy, to attorneys, and Parents of students with disabilities in special education and civil rights disputes with school districts and school district officials, and agencies who fail to comply with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (鈥淚DEA鈥�), and comparable provisions of state law. He is a Keynote speaker. He is dedicated to assisting individuals with disabilities and their parents in securing a 鈥渇ree appropriate public education,鈥� as promised by the IDEA. He also fights for self-determination so that all individuals can obtain a meaningful education that will prepare them to live independently, as productive members of society. Jim鈥檚 colleagues, and friends like Dr. Wayne Sailor, and Dr. Lou Brown have taught and worked closely with Jim. His colleagues are comprised of Psychologists, lawyers, parents, paralegals and advocates, most of whom are also parents of individuals with learning or severe disabilities.

Ava Ayers is an assistant professor of law, and a past Director of the Government Law Center, at Albany Law School.
Before teaching, Ayers worked for nine years in the office of the New York Attorney General, where she was a Senior Assistant Solicitor General. She served both as a supervisor and as lead counsel in various high-profile cases involving immigration law, states’ rights, constitutional rights, environmental law, and other issues. Ayers graduated first in her class from Georgetown Law in 2005. She then clerked for the Honorable Sonia Sotomayor on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and for the Honorable Gerard Lynch on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Ayers is the author of articles on immigration law, federalism, legal ethics, and other subjects, as well as the book A Student’s Guide to Law School, published by the University of Chicago Press. Before her gender transition in 2020, she was known as Andrew Ayers.

The Honorable Leslie E. Stein 鈥�81, who retired as an Associate Judge on the New York Court of Appeals in June 2022, is the new Director of the Government Law Center (GLC) at Albany Law School.

Stein received her B.A., Phi Beta Kappa, from Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and her J.D. from Albany Law School in 1981, graduating Magna Cum Laude. 

After graduating from Albany Law, Stein began her legal career as the law clerk to the Schenectady County Family Court Judges. She practiced matrimonial and family law with the Albany law firm of McNamee, Lochner, Titus & Williams, P.C. where she made partner. During that time, Stein was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. In 1997, she left private practice to begin her judicial career as an Albany City Court Judge and Acting Albany County Family Court Judge. She was elected to the New York State Supreme Court, Third Judicial District for a term commencing in January 2002. She served as the Administrative Judge of the Rensselaer County Integrated Domestic Violence Part from January 2006 until February 2008, when she was appointed a Justice of the New York State Appellate Division, Third Department. In October 2014, Judge Stein was nominated by former Governor Andrew Cuomo to serve as an Associate Judge of the Court of Appeals and her nomination was confirmed by the New York State Senate on February 9, 2015.

Stein is a past co-chair of the NYS Unified Court System Family Violence Task Force. She was a founding member of the New York State Judicial Institute on Professionalism in the Law and chaired the Third Judicial District Gender Fairness Committee from 2001 to 2005. She has also served on the Executive Committee of the Association of Justices of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, as an officer of the New York State Association of City Court Judges, and as a member of the Board of the New York Association of Women Judges. Stein has lectured and developed curricula for continuing legal education of attorneys and judges on multiple topics. She has a long history of involvement in various state and local bar associations and in a number of other professional and civic organizations.

She served as a member of the Board of Trustees for the law school from 2012 until 2021, when she stepped down to become the Director of the GLC. 

Dr James Freeman is Lecturer is based in the Department of History where his research interests span the histories of important British political speeches and the power of oratory, spin and rhetoric, as well as the promises that politicians make and why/how these are frequently not delivered. He is also interested in the history of media research and polling in British politics. Dr Freeman's previous projects include studying the evolution of national pensions policy as rooted in the Thatcher government鈥檚 pension reforms of the 1980s, the evolution of 鈥榥eoliberalism鈥� and its influence on British politics, the Conservative party鈥檚 history, and the rhetoric of freedom and liberty from 1900 to the present day. He also uses a variety of digital techniques to explore political history. He has been interviewed for NBS, Elle magazine and for a series of BBC radio broadcasts about his views on political speeches and the history of issues in contemporary politics, such as Brexit.

Education
BA (Exon), MA (Exon), PhD (Exon)