Rebekah Gleason Hope joined office of General Counsel in July 2022. Prior to joining the Office of General Counsel, she was in private practice where she represented parents of children with disabilities in special education cases in N.E. Florida. Additionally, she handled family law matters, guardianships, and was a certified family law mediator. Prior to private practice she was a tenured Professor at Florida Coastal School Law where she directed the FCSL Family and Child Advocacy Law Clinic and moved on to teach full time in the areas of Education Law, Family Law, Property, and Trusts and Estates. Prior to Florida Coastal School of Law, she was the staff attorney at Good Shepherd Legal Services in Washington, D.C., and taught student externs at American University.   Prior to that she was a fellow at Georgetown University Law Center. At Georgetown, she assisted in the supervision of the Georgetown University Law Center’s Family Advocacy Clinic. She has also testified as an expert on special education, having taught special education for over 10 years prior to entering the legal profession. She has published and spoken on the special education rights of parents of students with disabilities and worked with professionals both community and statewide in training surrogate parents for students with special needs.
 
Ms. Hope has served on several boards related to children’s needs, including but not limited to CHADD, HEAL, Girls on the Run, and Mainspring Academy. She is a member of the Florida Bar, Maryland Bar, Washington D.C. Bar, and is admitted to the Middle District of Florida.
 
Ms. Hope received her BA from Vassar College, MA from Columbia University, JD from George Washington University, and LLM from Georgetown University Law Center.