We recently connected with Vickie Brett and Amanda Selogie and have shared our conversation below.

Vickie Brett and Amanda Selogie , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Early in your career, how did you think through the decision of whether to start your own firm or join an established firm?

When we first started out, we both joined separate law firms after law school because that was what was expected from first year attorneys…to join an established law firm. At the time, law schools did not teach students how to run their own law firms, so it seemed like a natural next step. It was the right choice at the time because, although they were at separate law firms, it gave them both an opportunity to see how to not run a law firm. While they worked at separate law firms, there were many similarities between the firms in how they handle clients and choose which clients to serve (most importantly, how much money each client would bring the firm). Often, Amanda and Vickie had to refuse to help a family and seeing how limited they were in choosing which clients to help and how, they decided that there needed to be a better way to service and support students living with disabilities. This area of law is very unique, and allows for unique resolutions and does not require a one size fits all approach – as other areas of law do. They not only wanted to have the choice in helping the families they felt drawn to help but to better support families on a greater scale, to support in more ways than just litigation.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to sharemore of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

Amanda and Vickie are civil rights attorneys who specialize in supporting education equality and appropriate educational supports for students with unique learning needs. They work to protect children from disability discrimination, harassment and lack of access to quality and equal education.

Inclusive Education Project is our nonprofit based in Orange County, California and encompasses a legal clinic, student learning center, and parent community outreach. The legal clinic provides legal services that supports students and families throughout the state of California. The learning center provides equal access to supplemental educational services nationwide that students may need to access their public school education. Our parent community outreach includes our podcast, parent training and presentations, and political educational advocacy. We are known for supporting families and special populations of students that require support in accessing equal learning opportunities. We focus on a holistic and collaborative approach to helping our clients in supporting all aspects of their education which makes us different then the standard special education attorney. We are most proud of our collaboration with community and education partners who help us provide free or low cost resources to families. Our mission is to provide an equal opportunity for all children to access their education and through our legal advocacy, learning center, and community outreach we are well on our way to doing so.

We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and provide “pro bono” and “low bono” options. Pro bono meaning free legal services if the family qualifies, and low bono meaning low cost, flat rate services for all other potential clients.

We are also proud that we did it all as females – as an entirety female run and operated business.
As female business owners, it was difficult to get our start up money. We were both “unmarried” and female and so were denied loans outright. Through the generosity of a close friend, we were provided some seed money to get an office set up and from there hustled as best as we could to build our client base. Our biggest hurdle is people not being aware of the issues we are fighting against. Most families do not even know the problem and they come to us later than they should. The most recent struggles of course came because of the pandemic, people continuing to see “disabilities” in a negative way, and the educational system continuing to try to use outdated research and systems to educate all students.

We’d love for followers and readers to know about our podcast! With our podcast we have the privileges’ of having conversations with some amazing guests and work to change the conversation about civil rights, disability rights and the importance of an inclusive education system.

We’d love to hear about you met your business partner.

Amanda and Vickie met in law school while studying abroad in Spain. After bonding over lunch, adventure, and desire for helping people, they began planning to have a law firm together one day in the distant future. The plan to build a law firm together happened more quickly after law school than they thought.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

Over the years the two female business owners have cultivated a network of other female business owners that they get together with at least once a month to discuss management and entrepreneurial philosophies.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.inclusiveeducationproject.org
• Instagram: inclusiveeducationproject