The Legal 500

Work Department

Education.

Position

Douglas Silas Solicitors celebrated its sixth anniversary in May 2011 and continues to enjoy a nationally high-profile as a small, niche and specialist firm in education cases, particularly in relation to special educational needs (SEN), which it now practices exclusively in. This includes appeals to the Special Educational Needs & Disability Tribunal (SEND Tribunal), appeals against SEND Tribunal decisions and judicial reviews of local authorities. Douglas acts mainly on behalf of parents of children with SEN but also advises and represents education or disability organisations and schools (sometimes in dispute with their own authorities). Over the past six years he has successfully won or settled over 85% of the cases which he has taken on with over 60% of those cases only requiring his advice on a consultancy basis. He is often able to negotiate settlements with local authorities on an amicable basis thereby saving parents the additional costs of appealing to the tribunal. During his career Douglas has helped thousands of parents to get the right educational provision or placement for their child, even where they thought that there was no hope left. Douglas specialises in handling the more difficult or complicated cases, sometimes succeeding where parents have already been unsuccessful previously. He enjoys assistance from a small but ‘tight’ team with all cases dealt with by the firm as a team under his personal supervision which ensures that everyone knows what is happening in a case and can work together to get the right outcome. This also ensures the best client care and satisfaction as well as giving clients the best chance of succeeding. Douglas offers a genuinely ‘different’ approach by providing a lot of free information and help on his website at www.specialeducationalneeds.co.uk which has been referred to as a national resource for both parents of children with special educational needs and educational professionals alike. In its first five years it received over 450,000 ‘unique visitors’ who between them downloaded more than 1 million web pages. Douglas also provides training and consultancy to both lay and professional audiences, including other lawyers and educational professionals. Douglas’s reported cases and details of other SEND Tribunal cases on which he has worked as well as what our clients, the public and the media say about him are set out in detail on his website.

Career

Trained Levenes 1995; qualified 1997; associate Alexander Harris 2002; established Douglas Silas Solicitors 2005.

Languages

British Sign Language (BSL).

Member

Education Law Association; Administrative Law Bar Association; Lawyers with Disabilities Division.

Education

John Lyon School, Harrow; South Bank University (LLB Hons, winner of Sweet & Maxwell Law Prize for graduating in first place); College of Law, London (Diploma in Legal Practice).

Practice Areas

Administrative and public law; Education