Our People

• Douglas Silas
• Natasha Jones
• Erica Hurst
• Laxmi Patel
• Helene Israel

DOUGLAS SILAS, PRINCIPAL

Douglas qualified as a Solicitor in September 1997 and established Douglas Silas Solicitors on 3rd May 2005. Prior to this he trained and worked at Levenes Solicitors for over 6 years in the UK’s first ever Education and Disability department after which he established and headed a very successful Education and Public Law department for Alexander Harris Solicitors (now incorporated into Irwin Mitchell Solicitors). 

Douglas is also the current Honorary Legal Adviser to IPSEA (the Independent Panel for Special Educational Advice) which remains at the forefront of providing free and independent legal advice and support to parents of children with special needs by providing advice, support and representation, where needed, in appeals to the SEND Tribunal. 

Over the years, Douglas has helped, literally, thousands of parents to get the right educational provision or placement for their child, even when they thought that there was no hope left. Douglas specialises in handling the more difficult or complicated cases, sometimes succeeding where parents have already been unsuccessful previously. In sole practice Douglas has successfully won or settled around 80-90% of cases during the past six years, the vast majority involving SEN appeals to the SEND Tribunal as well as a number of Judicial Reviews and Statutory Appeals to the High Court against SENDIST decisions and Local Authorities. 

Douglas Silas Solicitors are a small, niche, but nationally acclaimed firm of solicitors specialising exclusively in Education, Disability, and Public Law, particularly in cases concerning Special Educational Needs (‘SEN’). Douglas advises and represents parents of children with SEN from the very beginning of the 'Statementing' process, right through to an appeal to the Special Educational Needs and Disability (‘SEND’) Tribunal (formerly ‘SENDIST’) or beyond, where that becomes necessary.

In addition, Douglas's website at www.SpecialEducationalNeeds.co.uk is a very popular resource used by both parents and professionals. receiving more than 125,000 unique visits during 2008 alone,  with its vast array of free information, including Factsheets and Guides to download and email courses on a range of SEN, Disability and Education issues.

Over the years, Douglas has helped, literally, thousands of parents to get the right educational provision or placement for their child, even when they thought that there was no hope left. Douglas also specialises in handling the more difficult or complicated cases, sometimes succeeding where parents have already been unsuccessful previously. In sole practice Douglas has successfully won or settled around 85% of cases during the past few years, the vast majority involving SEN appeals to the SEND Tribunal (but including the occasional DDA claim) as well as a number of Judicial Reviews and Statutory Appeals to the High Court against SENDIST decisions and Local Authorities. 

Click here to read What Our Clients Say about Douglas

Douglas’ considered decision to move into sole practice was taken after noting how clients who need the specialist legal advice that he provides also prefer a ‘personal’ touch which he could deliver far better through a small ‘niche‘ firm.  Douglas also wanted to do things very differently from the traditional ways in which solicitors handle cases and take advantage of the rapid advances in technology in recent years, not only for the benefit of his firm but also for his clients and their cases.  Douglas is now well known for having a genuinely 'different' approach, from other solicitors. Apart from providing the public with a lot of free information through his website, which other people usually charge for, Douglas uses technology to its full extent in his work. Douglas also places a great deal of emphasis on Client Care and providing customer satisfaction.

Click here to read What The Media Say about Douglas

The main types of cases that Douglas now undertakes are:

• Advising/Assisting parents throughout the ‘Statementing’ process
• SEN Appeals in the Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal (SEND)
• Appeals against SEND Tribunal decisions
• Judicial Reviews of Local Authorities/Other Public Bodies

click here to read about some of Douglas’ cases

Douglas was previously a fluent British Sign Language User with close links to the Deaf community. He provided a range of legal services to deaf people over many years having worked as an interpreter and communicator for deaf and deaf-blind people prior to qualifying as a solicitor. He has also written a number of published academic and magazine articles on differing areas of law concerning deaf and disabled people including discrimination; interpreters; and jury service.  He has trained interpreters in legal issues and for a number of years wrote a regular legal column for the Royal National Institute for Deaf People's Magazine, ‘One in Seven’. Douglas is often requested to talk to or train members of both professional and lay organisations on education, disability or health related issues.

click here to read about the Training and Consultancy Douglas can provide

Douglas has previously been a Trustee of the Disability Law Service and a member of the British Deaf Association's Advisory Panel. He is also currently a member of the Education Law Association, the Lawyers with Disabilities Division of the Law Society and the Administrative Law Bar Association. He is actively involved in wider community affairs.

click here to read What The Public Say about Douglas

click here to download a more detailed profile of Douglas

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NATASHA JONES, PERSONAL ASSISTANT

Natasha Jones has worked directly alongside Douglas since 1997 as his secretary/personal assistant at both of his previous firms. She has developed a great deal of experience in dealing with Education, Disability, and Public Law cases and is widely acknowledged as Douglas’ 'right hand'.

As well as secretarial duties, Natasha liaises with clients, and other people involved in their cases. Natasha also manages the daily accounting needs of the firm. She is appreciated by our clients, experts, barristers and other contacts for her speed, efficiency and friendliness in dealing with matters. She is also able to provide a genuine understanding of our clients' needs and, like Douglas, Natasha is fully committed to our specialist areas of law.

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ERICA HURST, PRACTISE MANAGER

Erica Hurst worked in management for many years before a career break to get married and have a family of three young children.

Erica’s effective and highly efficient running of our office allows Douglas and other staff to concentrate on providing high standards of casework support to clients, whilst secure in the knowledge that the firm's administrative needs are also being looked after.

Erica is also primarily responsible for taking New Enquiries from potential clients and helps deals with any Client Care issues if and when they arise. She is particularly able to empathise with many of our clients from a parent’s perspective. Erica is one of the first people that new clients often speak to and can spend a lot of time discussing their problem and taking relevant information from them before liaising with Douglas who can then provide initial advice either through her or directly.

Erica recently attended the ‘Why Try’ course and is now registered as a licensed trainer to help young people using this method. In addition, Erica has also recently become a licensed ‘123 Magic’ parental trainer. Erica hopes to be running programmes for both methods for parents, schools and other organisations in the new year.

For more information about ‘Why Try’ and ‘123 Magic’ please click on the link .

LAXMI PATEL, TRAINEE SOLICITOR

Laxmi joined our team in July 2008, having worked in education on the front-line as a Science Technician for over twenty years in an inner-city secondary school.  During this time Laxmi worked her way up to a senior position and also served as an associate staff school governor for many years.

In recent years Laxmi has gone back to study part-time and has managed to obtain a First class degree in Law through the Open University. After doing this she has also successfully completed the Legal Practice Course at the College of Law. These have been significant achievements for her personally as she has had to study whilst at the same time balancing both her work and family commitments.

Laxmi has taken the brave decision to change her career. She applied to us in the hope of being able to use her skills and experience in both education and the law to help the kind of clients we assist. We saw a lot of potential in her and were very impressed with her application and interview. We are delighted by how quickly and well she is settling into our team.

Laxmi assists us with our ever-growing caseload as well as Douglas personally. She is, like all of us, fully committed to the areas of work that we do and keen to develop her experience of Education, Disability and Public Law as soon as possible. In her spare time Laxmi is currently remains a voluntary Education Law advisor with the National Autistic Society and has been, until very recently, a voluntary adviser in a legal advice centre.

HELENE ISRAEL, TRAINEE SOLICITOR

Helene joined us as a paralegal in June 2009 after graduating from UCL with a law degree and completing the Legal Practice Course at the College of Law. 

Whilst studying, Helene volunteered at a local special needs school, assisting at break times, in the classroom and giving one-to-one support at the school’s summer camp. Having seen how much the right school and a positive environment can do for children with special educational needs, Helene is now hoping to use her legal training to be able to help parents secure the best educational provision they can for their child.

Helene quickly showed her dedication to the work we do and how she was a good 'fit' for our team and we asked her to join us as a Trainee Solicitor from January 2010 which we are delighted she has accepted.

Along with Laxmi, Helene now assists Douglas and the rest of our team with our ever-increasing caseload. Her enthusiasm, dedication and committed work ethos makes her a valuable addition to our team.

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