About
The Autism Advocacy & Law Center, LLC was founded in 2009 by Amy Dawson.The firm’s mission is to serve individuals who have disabilities, their families, and the organizations that serve them. Services include supplemental needs trusts, special needs trusts, guardianship, estate planning, medical assistance appeals, private insurance appeals, special education law, criminal defense, probate, and public policy. We also work with outside attorneys to take on challenges such as physical and sexual abuse and medical malpractice. The vision of the firm is to help parents and caregivers meet the needs of their children who have autism or other disabilities. We seek to accomplish this goal through a variety of methods that include planning for the future and advocating for funding to meet the current needs of our children — regardless of how young or old they may be.
Amy Dawson
Amy began practicing law in 1992 at the law firm of Faegre & Benson in downtown Minneapolis. Her career track changed course (for the better) after having twins in 2003. The babies were early and one of them, her son, had a very tenuous beginning. His initial hospital stay was nearly six months. For a year and a half her son relied on supplementary oxygen and was medically fragile.
Amy took a three year break from work to care for her son and daughter. When the twins were almost three years old, Amy went back to work at the PACER Center, a non-profit run primarily by parents of children with special health care needs and disabilities. At the PACER Center, Amy served as the Director of the Health Information and Advocacy Center. This work enabled Amy to become an expert on Medical Assistance and Insurance Coverage. Working at the PACER Center also enabled Amy to become involved in policy making surrounding autism and the medical home concept at both the state and national level.
Shortly before his third birthday, Amy’s son,Mac, was diagnosed with autism. This came as a devastating blow to Amy and her family. Amy was told that Mac would always be severely autistic, that he would probably never talk and that he would have a life time of a very high level need for supports and services. If you met Mac today you’d never believe how severe he once was. Mac’s full scale IQ has increased 58 points in three years. He can talk and converse and even does well at tests of cognitive flexibility. He still has issues. He needs lots of supervision and prompting. He continues to make enormous progress, however, and he is working hard to curtail his inappropriate behaviors and attend to his surroundings.
For Mac, intensive early intervention behavior therapy has been the most important intervention. He has also benefitted from a special diet and medical intervention that focuses on treating the underlying causes of his autistic symptoms — such as malnutrition and oxidative stress. What works for Mac, however, is not necessarily what will work for every other child who has autism. In fact, many children who have autism will continue to grow into adults who have severe symptoms and a very high level of need. And, of course, there will be many individuals all along the spectrum. That is why the Autism Advocacy & Law Center is fighting to expand healthcare coverage for all medically necessary care for autism — not just a select few treatments. Here at the Autism Advocacy & Law center, we believe that the autism community should come together to fight for the treatments, therapies, and services that all of our kids need — not just the ones that work for our own son or daughter.
Since restarting her law career, Amy’s practice has been focused on the disability community. Amy helps families understand their options for affordable access to the treatments, therapies, and services that their kids need, maps the course, and works to meet their goals. She also helps families plan for the future of their child who has autism or another disability through specialized estate planning techniques that can help ensure a child will have financial resources as well as eligibility for government benefits such as Medical Assistance and Social Security.
Public Policy. The Autism Advocacy & Law Center is also fighting to expand health care coverage so that individuals who have autism and other disabilities will have affordable access to all medically necessary care. The firm is also engaged in the fight to end harmful seclusion and restrain at our schools and hospitals.
Amy’s motto is “the obstacles plot the course.” This means that our path is laid out for us by the challenges we must overcome.
For fun, Amy enjoys taking her kids to the Roller Derby, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and camping, among other things. Amy is also an avid skier and cyclist.
MTB Race June 2011
Skate skiing 2012
Amy Dawson is the parent of twins, one of whom has autism and special health care needs. She began practicing law in 1992 at the firm of Faegre & Benson, L.L.P. in Minneapolis. She also worked at the PACER Center and is a member of the Board of the Arc Greater Twin Cities. Amy’s law practice focuses on issues related to autism, disabilities, insurance and estate planning.
Bob Gunderson inspired me to devote my practice to individuals who have disabilities, their families, and the organizations that serve them. Bob Gunderson was my mentor, friend and colleague and I miss him very much. Bob Gunderson served the disability community as an attorney, as a brother, and as a dedicated volunteer who spent many hours in service to organizations such as Opportunity Partners, Fraser, PACER, and the Arc of Minnesota and Arc Greater Twin Cities.