Education: 1998: J.D., UCLA School of Law; 1995: B.A., University of California, Berkeley.

Career in Brief: 2018–present: Disability Rights Advocates, Managing Director, Litigation; 2017–2018: Disability Rights California, Senior Litigation Counsel; 2016–2017: Solo practice; 2011–2016: Disability Rights Advocates, Co-Director of Litigation (2015–2016) and Staff Attorney (2011–2015); 2007–2011: Disability Rights California, Sacramento Regional Office, Managing Attorney (2009–2011) and Associate Managing Attorney (2007–2009); 2006–2007: US Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights, Equal Opportunity Specialist; 2002–2006: Disability Rights California, Staff Attorney; 2001–2002: Holguin & Garfield, Associate; 1998–2001: US Department of Justice, Antitrust Division, Trial Attorney.

Organization’s Description and Mission: Disability Rights Advocates (DRA) is the leading national non-profit disability rights legal center. DRA’s mission is to advance equal rights and opportunity for people with all types of disabilities nationwide.

What led you to become an attorney for a non-profit? What attracted you to this organization? I actually started working at DRA in 1995, when I was finishing college at UC Berkeley, doing general office work. I was immediately taken by the energy of DRA’s small, but mighty team of attorneys utilizing systemic litigation in the very early years of the Americans with Disabilities Act to level the playing field for persons with disabilities. I could see that disability rights were one of the last frontiers of the civil rights movement. Though I tried a couple of different practice areas after law school, including antitrust and labor law, I remained drawn to disability advocacy, coming back to the work, first at Disability Rights California, and later rejoining DRA.

Living in the Bay Area, which has always been at the forefront of disability rights and the independent living movement, has also helped me see the benefits of accessibility and universal design. Whether it is families with strollers benefitting from curb ramps, or using captioning to communicate flight announcements at a crowded and noisy airport, the gains are broad. And, as I have grown older and disability has impacted my family, having to advocate on a personal level has made me appreciate the work even more, and reminded me that disability touches all of us in some way.

What is your typical day like? One of the best things about this job is that there are not that many typical days, even during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our litigation teams are small, and we are all very hands-on, so my days can involve not only typical litigation-related work, including taking and defending depositions, preparing for and conducting oral argument, and participating in mediations, but also inspecting facilities for accessibility and meeting with peer-run disability organizations to assess their needs and identify areas where a litigation solution may be required. The COVID-19 pandemic has actually increased the number of activities packed into the day, due to Zoom and the fact that we are traveling less than we used to.

How have current societal crises, including the COVID-19 pandemic and recent civil unrest highlighting racial injustice and inequality, impacted your work? People of color with disabilities often face multiple layers of discrimination and barriers, and the focus on racial injustice has reminded us of the need to collaborate with disability communities of color to ensure we do not miss critical issues or needs. We have also seen an uptick in our casework involving police use of force in response to persons with mental health disabilities in crisis, and our hope is to use this moment to move towards humane, supportive alternatives.

What is unique about working for a non-profit compared to other types of employers? With a small staff, limited resources, and more than 40 cases in active litigation all over the country, we have learned to be very efficient in our work by focusing our claims and ensuring our discovery and expert work are targeted to achieve as much systemic change as we can. We have also worked to build solid relationships with other non-profits, civil rights firms, and pro bono teams at law firms to help us cover this much ground.

What do you enjoy most about your role? What are the greatest challenges? I still love legal analysis, applying that analysis to real-world challenges, and the problem-solving aspects of litigation. However, because our cases, particularly large class actions, can often take years before our clients see a remedy, the hardest part is keeping sight of the big picture while we are immersed in the day-to-day of litigation. Our ongoing contact with the disability community and peer-run advocacy groups helps us keep our perspective because we can see and appreciate the gains made from past cases, in addition to ongoing problems that need to be addressed.

What special knowledge or skills should an attorney seek to develop in preparing for a non-profit role? What did you learn after you became a non-profit attorney that you wished you had learned sooner? Listening and doing what we can to understand the real-world consequences of our positions for our clients are critical skills for this work. Early on, I often made the mistake of conducting my legal analysis in a vacuum without sufficiently vetting the practicalities of remedies, which sometimes resulted in solutions that worked on paper, but were problematic in the implementation phase.

What are some things that have surprised you since becoming involved with your organization? I am often surprised by how resilient and agile the disability advocacy community is. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, we were faced with a whole range of issues in existing cases we had not anticipated. In most cases, the client groups were ahead of us in identifying practical solutions and evidentiary support for those solutions. In our immigration detention litigation, the agility of our clients and collaborators helped secure the release of thousands of detained persons who were at increased risk of severe illness or death if exposed to COVID-19 in detention facilities, due to their health conditions or disabilities.

What advice would you give to an attorney considering becoming involved in this type of work? There is plenty of work out there and quite a bit of support available throughout the disability community, as well as the disability rights bar association. I would encourage folks to tap into those resources, and I would be happy to speak to anyone about where to start.

Who or what inspires you? Our founders, Larry Paradis and Sid Wolinsky, helped show me that litigation could be used as a vehicle for long-term change, and sometimes that means taking risks in litigation or taking cases that the private bar may not be willing to take. As technology evolves and complex questions arise about whether the disability access laws can be used to ensure persons with disabilities are not left behind, I often remind myself about the example set by Larry and Sid, including the calculated risks they took that literally helped pave the way for some of the accessibility features we all take for granted today.

Does your organization have a pro bono legal program? How can legal volunteers get involved with the organization? We work with quite a few pro bono partners, and our involvement with them is often focused on specific cases or issues. I would encourage potential attorney volunteers to reach out to us directly, or if you are working at a law firm with a pro bono partner or coordinator have that person contact us to discuss possible collaboration and issues in common. To get involved, send an email to [email protected].