Mark Gross, Esq.

Mark Gross served first as a line lawyer in the Appellate Section of the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice from 1974 and was promoted to Deputy Chief in 1996. As a line lawyer he wrote appellate briefs for the Division filed in nearly every federal court of appeals and in the United States Supreme Court. Mark argued cases in nearly all of the federal courts of appeals. As Deputy Chief, Mr. Gross supervised and reviewed Appellate Section attorneys and reviewed briefs. Mark also provided advice to the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division and various trial sections in the Division on complex legal policy and litigation issues.

One of Mark’s assignments was to write, and then to supervise, most of the amicus briefs the Justice Department filed on IDEA cases. Mark filed in excess of 30 such amicus briefs in courts of appeals and in the Supreme Court in IDEA cases. He also provided advice to the Department of Education on IDEA and other education matters.

Mark retired from the Department in April 2016, and currently consults with attorneys on IDEA litigation. Mark is also an adjunct professor of law at the Washington College of Law at American University in Washington, D.C., where he teaches courses in civil rights, education law (including the IDEA), and employment discrimination law.

Mark has a son with Down Syndrome. He was part of an InclusionTask force that prepared an inclusive education program for his local school district. He was also a member of the Fairfax-Falls Church Community Services Board for ten years, supervising disability programs, among others, implemented in Fairfax County and the City of Falls Church, Virginia.