Jacqueline C. Lembeck is a shareholder at McAndrews, Mehalick, Connolly, Hulse and Ryan P.C. She provides advice and representation to families of students with disabilities regarding all aspects of special education evaluation, identification, programming, placement and procedure. Ms. Lembeck represents clients in all stages of special education disputes including IEP meetings, mediations, resolution meetings, and administrative due process hearings before the Office for Dispute Resolution, and Federal court actions/appeals. Ms. Lembeck earned her Juris Doctor, with honors, from Emory University School of Law in Atlanta, Georgia, where she graduated in the top ten percent of her law school class. While in law school, Ms. Lembeck served as a student attorney at the Barton Child Law and Policy Center in the Appeal for Youth clinic. She was awarded the Dean’s Award for Outstanding Academic Achievement for her representation of juveniles in criminal appeals. Prior to law school, she graduated summa cum laude from Villanova University with a Bachelor of Arts in English.

Mr. McAndrews has worked for over forty (40) years in the public and private sectors in several roles in the fields of estate planning and disability law. He is the founder and Managing Partner Emeritus of McAndrews, Mehalick, Connolly, Hulse, and Ryan Law Offices, P.C., a fifteen attorney law firm with offices in Berwyn, Scranton, Wyomissing, Wilmington Delaware, and Metropolitan Washington D.C., which regularly represents individuals and their families in a variety of areas, including estate planning/administration, special education matters, special needs trusts, elder law, abuse of vulnerable persons, guardianships, higher education abuse/discipline matters, and injury cases. He frequently acts as a consultant to other public and private attorneys with regard to estate planning/administration, disability and special education issues. Mr. McAndrews has served as Executive Director and Staff Counsel to two select committees of the Pennsylvania State Senate which evaluated Pennsylvania’s system of care for the intellectually disabled and drafted proposed legislation designed to modernize Pennsylvania’s legal basis for the provision of care to the intellectually disabled. He served for fifteen (15) years as a Special Education Hearing Officer for the Pennsylvania Department of Education, and was assigned to determine the appropriate educational classification, program, and placement of school-age children with disabilities. Mr. McAndrews was also selected to serve as one of the first appellate hearing officers in Pennsylvania under new Department of Education regulations. During his seventeen (17) years as a prosecutor in the Philadelphia area, and thereafter in criminal defense matters, he handled many cases involving defenses of mental disability. He successfully pursued a conviction against the wealthiest murderer in American history, John E. DuPont, for the murder of Olympic gold medal wrestler, David Schultz. He is also a frequent contributor for national and local news media involving legal and political issues and has offered commentary for CBS, NBC, NPR, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, The Legal lntelligencer, and many other news outlets. For over 30 years, Mr. McAndrews was an instructor of Civil Rights, Constitutional Law, Criminal Justice and Business Law at Villanova University, Immaculata University and Drexel University. He is a frequent lecturer to national conferences, Bar Association Committees and advocacy groups concerning special education, estate planning/administration, the rights of the elderly and individuals and with disabilities and has authored numerous articles regarding these matters. He has served as a member of the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s Elder Law Council and served for a decade as Chairman of The Disability Law Committee of the Delaware County Bar Association. Mr. McAndrews obtained his law degree from Villanova’s Charles Widger School of Law in 1978 and was awarded a Bachelor of Science Degree in Education together with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science from Villanova University in 1975. Dennis is the author and sole actor of a play entitled “If JFK Survived Dallas: Presidential Reflections of an Elder Statesman”. He has also written “The Open” a screenplay which chronicles Ken Venturi’s dramatic victory in the 1964 United States Open Championship where he overcame heat exhaustion to achieve a triumph after years of being a washed-up tour professional.

Kalani Linnell is an experienced education law practitioner with a keen understanding of the issues from both a legal and practical standpoint. She advises clients in matters involving special education, student civil rights, and operations/practices. She is an associate with Sweet, Stevens, Katz & Williams LLP. In the years before joining the firm, Kalani worked with law firms with significant education law practices. She also worked as an investigator and hearing officer for a consulting firm that advised educational institutions in major areas of legal compliance. She also worked as a teacher in a large Pennsylvania school district prior to attending law school. As such, she has a deep understanding of the challenges teachers and administrators face on a daily basis in terms of discipline, safety, and plan/goal implementation. She is especially dedicated to the issue of Title IX compliance, both its historic regulations and the impending new directives. In 2020, she was invited to join a select group of attorneys providing guidance on the rules to the State University of New York. She also advised the Pennsylvania School Board Association on model policies relating to Title IX, and she has delivered a number of live presentations on the subject, including “The Intersection of Title IX and Special Education” at the Council for School Attorneys/National School Boards Association conference in 2023, and “The Equitable Application of Title IX,” to the Council of Administrators of Special Education (CASE) Law and Leadership Academy in 2024. She maintains a constant commitment to professional development by seeking opportunities to learn, grow and share through client in-service training, writing legal alerts and articles on cutting-edge topics, and presenting live continuing legal education programs and seminars. She is a graduate of Drexel University, Thomas R. Kline School of Law (J.D., cum laude) and West Chester University of Pennsylvania (B.S.Ed., magna cum laude). She is admitted to practice in Pennsylvania and the U.S. District Court, Eastern and Middle Districts, and the U.S. Court of Appeals, Third Circuit.

Macy T. Laster is an experienced education attorney and litigator with Sereni Law Group, LLC. Having represented some of the largest public School Districts in Pennsylvania, as well as more localized School Districts, charter schools and other educational entities, Macy is equipped to provide comprehensive support to clients through her expansive school law practice. She offers clients a wide range of expertise regarding special education including, but not limited to, compliance with the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and Chapters 14, 15, and 16 of the Pennsylvania School Code. She also possesses a plethora of experience in counseling clients regarding pupil services issues, including student discipline, truancy, Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972, and the McKinney-Vento Act. She has successfully litigated special education matters from inception through final resolution. Macy also brings a wide range of experience developing and providing professional development to educational staff and administrators. Macy offers a unique perspective to her practice, having obtained a B.S. in Education and Public Policy, with minors in Sociology and Women’s Studies, from the Pennsylvania State University- University Park. Thereafter, she received her Juris Doctorate, as well as a Certificate of Advanced Study in Disability Law and Policy, from Syracuse University College of Law. Her educational background and experiences, including having served as a Student Attorney at Syracuse University College of Law’s Disability Rights Clinic, providing indigent families with free disability and educationally-based legal services, have enabled her to establish an approach to educational legal representation that is supportive and empathetic to students, educators and administrators. Macy is admitted to practice law throughout the state of Pennsylvania, in all state and federal courts, as well as the Supreme Court of the United States. She was included in Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch® America for Education Law (2024 & 2025).

Michael Connolly is a shareholder at McAndrews Law Offices and was named Supervising Partner of Special Education in 2018 and Chief Operating Officer in 2025. With over twenty-five years of legal experience, he represents children with special needs and their families in a variety of educational matters at administrative hearings and state and federal court. He assists parents in disputes involving their public school or charter school regarding issues such as eligibility and identification, programming and placement, tuition reimbursement, discipline, bullying, discrimination, injuries, and more. He also lectures across the state and nationally to parents, educators, and attorneys on special education and other education law related topics. Throughout his legal career, Mr. Connolly has been an active member of the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s Legal Services for Exceptional Children Committee, where he served as Vice Chair from 2002 through 2003 and as Chair from 2003 through 2006. In his roles as Vice Chair and Chair, he played an active part in helping to shape the Bar Association’s position on legal issues impacting students with disabilities as well as planning one of the Commonwealth’s preeminent legal conferences in the area of special education. Mr. Connolly continues to be an active member of the Pennsylvania Bar Association and its Legal Services for Exceptional Children’s Committee. Mr. Connolly began his career in education law upon graduation from law school as an associate with a District of Columbia law firm representing parents in special education matters. He later became a partner in a law firm located in Bucks County, Pennsylvania where he spent nearly a decade representing school districts throughout state. Most recently, prior to joining McAndrews Law Offices, Mr. Connolly was a founding partner at another education law firm in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, where he spent seven year representing parents and students in educational matters. Mr. Connolly is a native of Berks County, Pennsylvania, and graduated from Wilson Sr. High School in West Lawn, and currently lives with his wife in East Norriton. He is a graduate of The District of Columbia School of Law, Juris Doctor, Cum Laude; and Thomas Moore College, B.A. (Political Science).

Daniel Woody, Esquire, is a federal litigation and appellate counsel in the Berwyn office of McAndrews Law Offices. While in college, Dan studied child psychology and developed a passion for advocating for children with special needs. This led him to become a special education teacher before attending law school. After graduating, he worked for a law firm representing school districts and charter schools in a variety of matters, but primarily special education cases. However, his true passion remained advocating for students with disabilities. Thus, while also working in the Appeals Unit of the Delaware County District Attorney’s Office, Dan started his own law practice representing students. In the District Attorney’s Office, Dan developed into a seasoned appellate practitioner and earned a reputation as an excellent writer and hard worker. He now is combining both his passions to help parents and students in complex appellate matters. Aside from three years of studying law and skiing in Colorado, Dan has lived and then practiced in Media all his life. He is a graduate of the University of Denver, Sturm College of Law and Penn State University with a B.A. in Psychology.