Speaker: Mary Margaret Gay, Esquire

Mary Margaret Gay is a founding member of Gay Jones & Kuhn and concentrates her practice on strategies to help her clients anticipate and eliminate risk.  She represents clients locally, regionally, and nationally.  She possesses extensive experience in creating cost-efficient, unified defense strategies to manage special issues arising in litigation.  She works closely with companies to create best practices, and trains their employees, outside counsel and others involved on how to put these into play.  Mary Margaret regularly assists clients in monitoring and predicting trends in litigation, including filing rates, verdicts, and jurisdictional changes.  She also works in Mississippi to assist students, parents, and school districts with issues related to Title IX, bullying, implementation of independent education plans and strategies to increase communication of students, teachers, and administrators.

Speaker: Sarah Beth Jones, Esquire

Sarah Beth Jones is a founding member of Gay Jones & Kuhn licensed in Mississippi and Alabama.  She strives to serve her clients with enthusiasm and excellence as they collaborate together to reduce risk and identify smart solutions to legal issues. She focuses her practice on coordination of special projects and implementation of creative defense strategies in the mass tort arena.  Sarah Beth has a passion for assisting small businesses in her community and working with parents, children, and schools to improve the quality of education for students with special needs.

Speaker: Julian Miller, Esquire

Julian D. Miller is an associate with Forman Watkins & Krutz in Jackson, Mississippi, and has a diverse civil litigation and appellate practice. Mr. Miller has a special interest in education law, and he has made a commitment to advancing the rights of children with disabilities. He has successfully represented clients in school disciplinary and special education matters around the state as part of the Mississippi Center for Justice’s Educational Opportunities Campaign. He received his Juris Doctor degree (cum laude) from the University of Mississippi and he received his undergraduate degree in government from Harvard College. He served as a law clerk for Mississippi Court of Appeals Presiding Judge T. Kenneth Griffis, Jr. and practiced at Butler Snow in Ridgeland and Bradley Arant Boult Cummings in Jackson before joining the Forman Watkins firm.

Speaker: Natasha Quiroga

Natasha Quiroga is a nationally known advocate for parents and children and has vast expertise in special education law. Ms. Quiroga is the PREP Director and Senior Counsel for the Educational Opportunities Project of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law in Washington, D.C., and directs the Parental Readiness and Empowerment that utilizes technology to empower parents across the country. She received her Juris Doctorate from American University and her Master's in International Politics with a concentration in Children and Youth Development from American University School of International Service. She received her B.B.A. in Marketing and B.A. in Plan II Liberal Arts at the University of Texas at Austin. She is fluent in Spanish and is licensed to practice in New York and the District of Columbia. She is a 2017 Presidential Leadership Scholar

Speaker: Rachel Roberts, Paralegal

Rachel is Litigation Coordinator and Lead Client Paralegal at Gay Jones & Kuhn.  She has more than fifteen years experience serving as a mass tort paralegal for clients involved in national litigation. As a mother of a daughter with Mosaic Down Syndrome, Rachel understands first-hand the personal and educational challenges facing both individuals with developmental disabilities as well as their parents and guardians.  Rachel uses her passion for children with special needs to serve as an advocate and liaison between parents and schools ensuring children have the tools they need for their education.  She knows from personal experience how complicated and daunting the process of finding educational resources and advocates for a child can be for a parent. 

Speaker: Christine Woodell, ADA Technical Assistance Specialist

Christine has been advocating for the rights for people with disabilities for approximately three decades and is an expert on the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Fair Housing Act.  Christine lives in Ocean Springs and serves as a consultant for the Southeast ADA Center.  She was chairperson of the Biloxi Mayor’s Awareness Committee where she headed the Site Review Committee, and she is also a founding Board Member of the Gulf Coast Fair Housing Center, and currently serves as president of the board.  She works with the Southeast DBTAC doing technical assistance, course moderation and serves on their expert training team.