Reviews

Jeannette was hired to represent us in a dysfunctional and retaliatory school district, but her performance left my student without support and services and worse off before her awful legal advice. While she remained calm in the meeting, she proved ineffective in achieving our goals. Her follow-up recommendations had severely negative impacts on our child's education and mental health, surprising even the lawyer and advocate we consulted for damage control. She lacked filter, making inappropriate and judgmental comments that blamed us for administrative failures. Her advice often seemed disconnected from the realities parents face in our district, and she discouraged us from pursuing necessary changes. Additionally, her part-time status led to slow responses, taking days to reply. Jeannette works solo, lacking backup or oversight, which became problematic when her advice worsened our situation without any subsequent follow-up. Ultimately, we had to seek help elsewhere to mitigate the damage she caused. While she may have been effective in the past, our experience with Jeannette has been overwhelmingly negative. Her outdated knowledge of current special education laws was evident, contributing to her detrimental legal advice, like not knowing or caring the burden of proof shifting to districts. We hoped for better support from a seasoned lawyer, but she failed to meet our expectations or demonstrate empathy toward our challenges. Jeannette's inability to adapt, coupled with her damaging counsel, led to more problems than solutions for our family. We caution others to consider her recent track record and preparedness before seeking her services.

I met Jeannette 25 years ago when she helped y mother advocate for me when I was diagnosed with ADHD and the edmonds school district didnt want to do anything to help me be sucessful. If it hadnt been for her I would have never received services and never would have found success. Then 25 years later we hired her to help my son in the mukilteo school district with obtaining an IEP after the scholl refused to put him on one. We exhausted every effort we could trying to get the school to jell him and they refused. I even have a special education degree and could get nowhere with them. Found Jeannette again and our attorney this time to help son. She remembered me and my mother from 25 years ago and was willing to help. Let me tell you, if you want an attorney who the local school districts know her me and know she will not back down to their crap, well you meed Jeanette Cohen for your attorney. The minute they knew she was on board they scrambled like little ants to do what she asked for. It was a wonderful feeling and our family will appreciate her forever. Wouldn't recomend anyone else for an educational attorney but her!

I was referred to Jeanette by a generalist in a crisis situation. Some confusion and not optimal communication (plus the initial hand off) probably did not get the best result or leave me with a choice. That said, she was a bull dog 90% of the time on the resulting follow up. When she took my case, she said if it progressed beyond X date, she would refer me out. That referral did no go smoothly, but I am not at all clear it is on her. The referral was to finish the first matter which no one finished. The new firm that I hired dropped the ball on that and seemed to not understand or follow a path that led to my end goal in the second matter, which ended poorly. I am hoping Jeanette will come back and help close the first matter where she has already gotten some remarkable results in terms of getting OPSI to look hard at issues at highly unregulated private school. Hire Jeanette in a minute if she has time and attention to focus on your case for as long as needed

I was referred to Jeannette for my concerns. She responded immediately, and although she could not take my case, she referred me to the Avvo website to select another attorney.

I have had a horrible time with our school district. My son is 15 and a freshman with autism. The district wanted to vacate academics and focus on job skills. I fought them and ended up filing due process. I attempted to fight on my own, but when we worked out an IEP and they backed out at the last minute. I felt I was in over my head and retained Jeannette. She took me through settlement conference which was 12 hours long. We came out of it with 90% of what we wanted. She is an absolute expert and she got me more than I expected. I will continue to use her because my mind, for once, is at ease!!

Jeannette has supported our son for 14 years! She started when he was in the 1st grade- and even beyond High School while attending the Adult Training Program. He graduates this year, and is now much more independent. He is employed in the community. Our son would not be where he is today had it not been for her perseverance with two school districts. You helped us through difficult times with your dedication in securing appropriate services he was entitled to. There were many times where up to 10 or more district professionals attended the IEP meetings. You handled yourself with poise and compassion (and humor!) in order to settle differences with the school districts. You gave us sound counsel, expert advice, and introduced us to others that we could not have obtained on our own. We cannot thank you enough for everything you have done for our family. We are so very grateful.

There are simply no words to express how grateful our family is to Jeannette. She saved our special needs child who was caught in a horrible situation with the school district and bureaucracy. She turned his life around by battling the school district, getting his IEP straightened out, and the proper services provided, and a SAFE learning environment. He's a different child today--educated, eager to go to school and learn, and will graduate from high school this year. Thanks to Jeannette our son is not a drop out with a disability, but a young man on his way to college. THANK YOU JEANNETTE FOR EVERYTHING!