Founder & Managing Attorney

Law Offices of Georgianna Junco-Kelman

"I do not simply represent children with disabilities - I treat every child I represent as if they were my own. I stand beside families with fierce, compassionate, and relentless advocacy, fighting to ensure their child receives the individualized education, services, supports, and equal opportunities guaranteed by law, maximizing every opportunity to prepare them for a successful, independent, and meaningful future to the fullest extent possible.”

For nearly two decades, Georgianna Junco-Kelman has devoted her career exclusively to fighting for the educational rights of children with disabilities. Combining more than 27 years of legal experience with the unique perspective of a mother who has personally navigated the special education system, she has become one of California’s most respected advocates for students with disabilities and their families.

Licensed to practice law since 1998, Ms. Junco-Kelman began her legal career in criminal defense, where she developed extensive courtroom, trial, and administrative hearing experience representing clients in complex, high-stakes litigation. While she built a successful legal career, the birth of her eldest son, Brandon, who was born with severe physical and cognitive disabilities, forever changed both her personal life and professional purpose.

Navigating the special education system as Brandon’s mother exposed her firsthand to the overwhelming challenges families face while attempting to secure an appropriate education for their children. Inspired by Brandon’s extraordinary journey and determined to ensure that no family would have to face those battles alone, she redirected her legal career and founded the Law Offices of Georgianna Junco-Kelman with one unwavering mission: to ensure every child with a disability receives the individualized education, services, supports, and opportunities guaranteed under the law.

Today, Ms. Junco-Kelman represents families throughout California at every stage of the special education process, including Individualized Education Program (IEP) meetings, Due Process proceedings before the California Office of Administrative Hearings, mediations, Office for Civil Rights (OCR) complaints, State Compliance Complaints, Regional Center advocacy, and federal appeals. She provides comprehensive legal representation from the earliest stages of educational planning through complex administrative and federal litigation, ensuring every legal strategy is built upon a complete understanding of each child’s unique educational needs.

Why Families Choose Georgianna

What truly distinguishes Ms. Junco-Kelman’s practice is her unwavering commitment to personally attending every single IEP meeting with every family she represents. For her, attending an IEP meeting is not optional—it is the cornerstone of effective advocacy and a nonnegotiable part of her representation.

She firmly believes that the IEP meeting creates the evidentiary foundation upon which successful negotiations, Due Process proceedings, OCR complaints, State Compliance Complaints, and federal appeals are built. By personally participating in every meeting, she observes firsthand how decisions are made, identifies procedural and substantive violations as they occur, challenges predetermination, safeguards meaningful parental participation, preserves critical legal issues for litigation, and documents deficiencies in a district’s offer of a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE).

Rather than relying solely upon documents created after a meeting has concluded, Ms. Junco-Kelman develops the factual record in real time. This hands-on approach allows her to identify systemic failures, procedural violations, and educational deficiencies as they occur, creating the evidentiary record necessary to pursue successful Due Process hearings, favorable settlements, OCR complaints, State Compliance Complaints, and federal appeals.

She believes exceptional advocacy begins long before litigation is ever filed. It begins at the IEP table.

Ms. Junco-Kelman personally conducts approximately 300 IEP meetings every year, bringing her career total to well over 2,000 IEP meetings—a level of firsthand experience few attorneys in California can match.

Proven Results

Through strategic advocacy, negotiation, and litigation, Ms. Junco-Kelman recovers multiple millions of dollars annually on behalf of families seeking appropriate educational placements and services for children with disabilities.

She has successfully secured funding for specialized private school tuition, transportation, educational programming, compensatory education, related services, behavioral supports, assistive technology, and other educational benefits necessary to ensure children receive the individualized education to which they are legally entitled.

Her advocacy has enabled countless students throughout California to obtain life-changing educational opportunities, meaningful educational progress, and brighter futures.

Leadership Beyond the Courtroom

Ms. Junco-Kelman’s commitment to improving the lives of children with disabilities extends far beyond her legal practice. For decades, she has dedicated her time and leadership to advancing disability advocacy, raising critical funding, and shaping public policy at both the local and national levels.

For 15 years, Ms. Junco-Kelman served on the Autism Speaks Southern California Board of Directors, concluding her tenure as a member of the organization’s Executive Leadership Council. During her service, she founded the Autism Speaks Southern California Annual Charity Gala and served as its Chair for 15 years, helping transform it into one of the organization’s premier fundraising events. She also played a leadership role in organizing the Autism Speaks Los Angeles Walk, another signature fundraising initiative. Through these efforts, she helped raise millions of dollars to support autism research, advocacy, family resources, community programs, and critical services for individuals with autism and their families.

Her advocacy also extended to the national level through participation in the Autism Speaks Annual Advocacy Forum and Capitol Hill Day in Washington, D.C., where she met directly with Members of Congress and congressional staff to advocate for increased federal funding under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), expanded autism research, and legislation strengthening educational opportunities, services, supports, and protections for individuals with autism and other developmental disabilities.

In recognition of her extraordinary leadership and longstanding commitment to the autism community, Ms. Junco-Kelman was presented with the Autism Speaks Outstanding Advocate Award in 2019 by the organization’s Chief Executive Officer. The award recognized her dedication to the autism community and her leadership in founding and chairing the Southern California Annual Charity Gala, through which she helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars in support of Autism Speaks’ mission.

Ms. Junco-Kelman has also served for more than a decade on the Board of Directors of Inclusion Matters by Shane’s Inspiration, where she currently serves as Secretary of the Board. She has chaired the organization’s Annual Charity Gala and has helped raise millions of dollars to support inclusive playgrounds, educational initiatives, and programs that create opportunities for children of all abilities to learn, play, and thrive together.

Her dedication to advocacy and community leadership has been recognized with numerous honors, including the Leadership in Fundraising Award from Autism Speaks (2024), the Inspirational Woman of the Year Award presented by the United Chambers of Commerce (2021), the Outstanding Leadership and Dedication Award from Autism Speaks (2018), and the Formidable Advocate Award from Inclusion Matters by Shane’s Inspiration (2017).

Whether advocating in the courtroom, mentoring families, leading nonprofit organizations, raising critical funding, or working with lawmakers to improve public policy, Ms. Junco-Kelman remains committed to creating meaningful opportunities and lasting change for children with disabilities and their families.

Media & Public Speaking

A respected legal commentator, educator, and public speaker, Ms. Junco-Kelman is frequently invited to provide legal analysis on special education law, disability rights, educational policy, and issues affecting children with disabilities. She has appeared on numerous national and local television, radio, podcast, and digital media platforms and regularly presents to parent organizations, educators, attorneys, and advocacy groups throughout California.

Her Philosophy

For Ms. Junco-Kelman, representing children with disabilities is far more than a profession - it is a personal calling born from lived experience.

Every child she represents is approached with the same determination, compassion, and relentless advocacy she once devoted to securing an appropriate education for her own son.

She firmly believes that no two children are alike, and no educational program should ever be driven by convenience, predetermined placement, or a one-size-fits-all philosophy. Every student possesses unique strengths, challenges, learning styles, and unlimited potential. Accordingly, every child deserves an educational program specifically designed to meet his or her individual needs - not one designed around the limitations, resources, or convenience of a school district.

This philosophy guides every aspect of her practice. Whether advocating during an IEP meeting, negotiating a settlement, litigating a Due Process hearing, or pursuing an OCR complaint, State Compliance Complaint, or federal appeal, her objective remains the same: to ensure every child is evaluated, understood, and educated as an individual with services and supports specifically tailored to maximize meaningful educational progress.

She has dedicated her career to challenging cookie-cutter educational programs and holding school districts accountable when they fail to provide the individualized educational planning required by law.

Her philosophy is best reflected in the words of United States Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter, whose principle has become the guiding motto of her practice:

“There is no greater inequality than the equal treatment of unequals.”

To Ms. Junco-Kelman, these words embody the very foundation of special education law. Equality is not achieved by treating every child the same. Equality is achieved by recognizing that every child is different and ensuring each receives the individualized education, supports, and opportunities necessary to reach his or her fullest potential.

What Families Say

"Her wings are those giant scary wings that unfurl and scare the death out of bad guys. No time for those sweet fragile white wings. I am so glad she came into our lives. She truly is an angel."

Nothing speaks more powerfully than the voices of the families Ms. Junco-Kelman has had the privilege of representing. Prospective clients are encouraged to read the extensive collection of independently published client reviews and testimonials available online, including on Avvo, where parents consistently describe her relentless advocacy, exceptional knowledge of special education law, strategic approach to complex cases, and unwavering commitment to securing meaningful educational opportunities for children with disabilities.

For many families, these testimonials reflect not only the legal results achieved, but also the compassion, responsiveness, and personal commitment they experienced throughout their journey.