Anneliese Downey

Anneliese Downey aims to guide clients in their efforts to provide high-quality education for students in their communities. Anneliese assists school districts in understanding the complex issues of special education while creating a simpler and clearer solution. Her collaboration with educators and administrators to ensure compliance and efficiency allows everyone to keep the most important goal in mind: supporting the well-being of students.  

Before law school, Anneliese worked as a substitute teacher in the Bay Area in both special education and nonspecial education classrooms. During law school, she worked in-house for a public school district in California and found a great passion for the legal side of education. She managed a broad range of legal and regulatory functions. This included advising the School Board on new legislation’s legal impacts and drafting an administrative regulation to establish policy. She has prepared all legal documentation, from strategy memos for Due Process Hearings and Prior Written Notices for compliance, to necessary documents and testimony for a temporary restraining order. She was involved in conducting and documenting an internal investigation into sexual harassment in the workplace.

In law school, Anneliese continued to refine her research and oral advocacy skills, gaining diverse experiences that earned her Pro Bono Honors and laid the foundation for her practical legal skills.