Home   >  Attorneys  >  Mary Ellen Sowyrda Mary Ellen Sowyrda msowyrda@mhtl.com Ms. Sowyrda heads the Special Education Department within Murphy, Hesse, Toomey and Lehane, LLP, which currently represents approximately 160 school districts and educational collaboratives in the field of Special Education Law. She is involved in all aspects of litigation including hearings, mediations, pre hearing conferences with the Bureau of Special Education Appeals and court cases. She provides clients with daily advice on school-related legal issues and deals with the Department of Education, the Department of Social Services, and other state agencies that provide services to students. She conducts workshops for clients on such special education topics as discipline, inclusion, procedural issues, strategies to avoid hearings and to prepare for hearings, recent trends in the law, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Americans with Disabilities Act and ongoing changes in regulations. Ms. Sowyrda also conducts workshops on the same topics before national groups such as the National Business Institute, Lorman Education Services, Inc., and the Association of School Business Officials. Ms. Sowyrda is a summa cum laude graduate of Boston College and a graduate of Boston College Law School. She is a member of the Boston and Massachusetts Bar Associations and the American Bar Association.