Meet the Team.
We are dedicated to protecting your children.



​

​
​SCROLL DOWN TO VIEW TEAM

Kate Gerland

Partner

​Associations: Colorado Council of Special Education Lawyers (CCSEL); Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, Inc. (COPAA); Colorado and Boulder Bar Association.
Education: 
University of Colorado J.D.
Stanford University B.A.,  Drama

​Kate Gerland - focuses on enforcing the rights of parents and children  under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Americans with Disabilities Act, and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. 

​ Ms. Gerland also represents students in manifestation determination, suspensions, and expulsion hearings.  She counsels parents on special education law and handles administrative hearings and appeals.  In Elizabeth E. v. Jefferson County School Dist. her clients won five straight victories from due process through the petition for certiorari to the Supreme Court.  Ms. Gerland, alongside attorneys from Holland and Hart,  represented Ebonie and her mother in Ebonie S. v. Pueblo School Dist. 60.  The school district designed and built special desks with locking bars to restrain students with disabilities including Ebonie.  The litigation lasted for over eight years—from the initial due process hearing through the jury trial in federal court that resulted in a $2.2 million dollar verdict for Ebonie. Prior to discovering special education law, Ms. Gerland has been a teacher in both preschool and law school.
Representative cases. Jefferson County School Dist. R-1 v. Elizabeth E., 702 F.3d 1227 (10th Cir. 2012); Jefferson County School Dist. R-1 v. Elizabeth E., 862 F.Supp.2d 1138 (D. Colo. 2012); Jefferson County School Dist. R-1 v. Elizabeth E., 789 F.Supp.2d 1177 (D. Colo. 2011);  Taylor F. v. Arapahoe County School Dist. 5, 954 F.Supp.2d 1197 (D. Colo. 2013); Luciano v. East Cent. Bd. of Co-op Educational Services, 885 F.Supp.2d 1063 (D. Colo. 2012).

Elena Eisenberg

Partner
 
​Associations: Colorado Council of Special Education Lawyers(CCSEL); Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, Inc. (COPAA); Colorado and Douglas Bar Associations.
Education:
University of Denver J.D.
University of Southern California B.A. International Relations

Elena Eisenberg - specializes in education cases, discipline matters, and juvenile criminal defense.  She advocates for students throughout Colorado concerning their Individual Education Plans (IEP's) and 504 plans, private placements, mediations, administrative hearings, and federal and state courts, expulsion hearings, threat assessments, and manifestation determinations.

​ Former clients include families with students from preschool through graduate school.  She is frequently sought to lecture to attorneys and non-attorneys about the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. 
Prior to joining the firm, Ms. Eisenberg represented children in district and county court privately and for the Colorado Public Defender's Office. In addition to helping children and their families, Ms. Eisenberg also represented adults with disabilities and practiced in other areas of complex civil litigation. She is also a  former religious school teacher for elementary age children. Appellate Cases: Peter Moreno v. Joseph Cleveland et. al., unpublished; People v. Darin Johnson, 865 P.2d 836(Colo. 1994); City of Colorado Springs v. Kathleen Conners,  993 P.2d 1167(Colo. 2000).   
Past honors: U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, Hon. John Kane, Jr., Law Clerk Intern; American Inns of Court, William Doyle Inn; Regional Appellate Moot Court Competitor (National team member award for best brief)

Alexandra D Ferguson

Special Counsel

​Education:
CUNY School of Law J.D.
 New York University B.S., Early Childhood and Elementary Education

Alexandra Ferguson - began working in the area of special education law in 1992 as a legal intern at Advocates For Children of New York (AFC) reviewing Federal and State laws and regulations impacting the education of children with disabilities, conducted intake and advocating for parents of children with disabilities against the New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE).

​She later joined the Office of General Counsel of the NYCDOE practicing in the areas of special education law and student discipline working with high-level administrators advising on Federal and State disability and student discipline laws and regulations.  She worked on class action lawsuits brought against NYCDOE that involved the educational rights of incarcerated youth and the unlawful discharge of students. In addition, she represented the NYCDOE on individual cases at impartial hearings.  In 2000, Alexandra held the position of Director and Clinic Professor of the Special Education Law Clinic at Rutgers Law School teaching a law class on Special Education Law as well as supervising law students in the Newark, New Jersey area.  In 2005, Alexandra joined the Law Offices of Susan Deedy representing parents of children with disabilities against the NYCDOE and Nassau County school districts.  After moving to Colorado, Alexandra became a member of the Colorado bar and continues to work in the area of special education law throughout Northern Colorado.  Alexandra is a certified teacher with several experience teaching in both private and public schools.  She lives with her husband and two children in Boulder, CO.  

     
​​     Jennifer Weiser Bezoza

        Special Counsel
​
​                Education:
​                New York University School of Law,  J.D., Cum Laude (2000)
                Yale University B. A in American Studies, Magna Cum Laude (1996)

---

Jennifer Wesier Bezoza  has been practicing civil rights law for over 25 years, primarily in the areas of education, disability rights, and employment discrimination. Before law school, she taught at a private school for students with learning disabilities in New York. She began her legal career at Education Law Center in Newark, New Jersey, where her work included the representation of plaintiffs in the Abbott v Burke landmark school funding case and M.A. v Newark Public Schools, a class action special education case. She also provided individual representation in special education and school discipline matters.

From 2006-08, Ms. Bezoza worked at Disability Rights Advocates in Berkeley, California, where she represented plaintiffs with disabilities in class action cases for equal access to education, employment, emergency planning, health care, and access to public facilities and services. She also represented individual students with disabilities in testing accommodations cases.

From 2009-12, Ms. Bezoza was one of the lead trial and appellate counsel in Lobato v. State, a state constitutional challenge to Colorado’s school finance system. Ms. Bezoza presented all of plaintiffs’ evidence on special education, gifted education, and early childhood during the five-week trial. Ms. Bezoza won many awards for her work on the Lobato case, including the Coloradan Award from the Colorado Education Association, the Leadership Award from the Colorado Association of School Executives, and the Individual of the Year and Team of the Year awards from the Colorado Lawyers’ Committee.

As the Director of Education Advocacy for the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights in San Francisco, California, Ms. Bezoza developed and implemented a program to provide pro bono legal representation of students in special education and school discipline matters, as well as community training on education issues. She also represented students in Title VI complaints of race and national origin discrimination.

From 2020 to 2025, Ms. Bezoza worked at the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) of the United States Department of Education in Denver, Colorado, where she investigated, resolved, and monitored complaints of disability, sex, race, and national origin discrimination, including antisemitism and access to English language learner services, in K-12 schools and higher education. She also provided technical assistance and training for parents, students, attorneys, administrators, and educators on Title II of the ADA, Section 504, Title VI, and Title IX.

Ms. Bezoza has authored the following publications on education issues:

• Do Public Employees Still Have Free Speech Rights under the First Amendment? TRIAL TALK (Colorado Trial Lawyers Association, June/July 2014).
• Universal Access to a Quality Education: Research and Recommendations for the Elimination of Curricular Stratification (Education and the Public Interest Center & Education Policy Research Unit, 2009)
• The Availability of Public Resources for Children with Disabilities in Private Religious Schools, 11 UC DAVIS J. JUV. LAW & POLICY 153 (2007).
• The Fourth Amendment Right of Female Inmates to be Free from Cross-Gender Pat Frisks, 33 Seton Hall L. Rev. 31 (2002).
• Disproportional Representation, in Current and Emerging Issues in Special Education Law 299 (Practicing Law Institute, 2001).
• Achieving an Inclusive Education for Children with Disabilities: A Parent’s Guide to Advocacy (Connecticut Coalition for Inclusive Education, 1995).

​Ms. Bezoza volunteers as an Assistant Soccer Coach for Colorado Academy’s Unified Special Olympics team. She lives with her husband and two children in Englewood, Colorado.

Anjanette Mantooth

Paralegal

​Education:
University of La Verne, Certificate in Paralegal Studies

Anjanette Mantooth - has over 20 years of paralegal experience. Prior to joining the firm, Ms. Mantooth spent 7 years as a capital case paralegal on the felony panel of a large public defender office. She has also worked in pretrial and post-conviction litigation as a paralegal and office manager.

​Ms. Mantooth received her paralegal certificate from the University of La Verne. Outside of work she enjoys hiking, photography, and off-road trips. She lives with her husband and child in Portland, Oregon.