[blindlaw] Article about ABA Conference on Employment of Attorneys with Disabilities

[Noel Nightingale]

SILENT NO LONGER
ABA Conference Gives Lawyers With Disabilities a Forum to Call for
Responsive Hiring Policies

BY TERRY CARTER

The first-of-its-kind National Conference on Employment of Lawyers with
Disabilities this week brought together 165 professionals for a mix of
panel discussions,
extensive networking and some preaching to the choir.

The ABA sponsored the conference, held in Washington, D.C., on Monday
and Tuesday, with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission as a
major co-sponsor.
Attendees included lawyers, academics, judges, and representatives from
government agencies and public interest groups.

EEOC Chair Cari M. Dominguez released a 22-page
commission fact sheet
on reasonable accommodations for attorneys with disabilities.

The publication addresses rights and responsibilities of both legal
employers and disabled lawyers, with details and real-life examples of
accommodation
issues.

"We hope this fact sheet will jump-start decisions on the hiring of
lawyers with disabilities in law firms large and small," ABA President
Michael S. Greco
of Boston told the group.

In an irony that was lost on no one, it turned out that the conference
venue, the Renaissance Hotel, did not have proper wheelchair access for
the ballroom
slated for the meetings. Quick arrangements were made for an accessible
area, albeit a long and narrow room with low ceilings and suspended
water pipes
on a lower floor off the parking garage.

"We're more used to things like this than most lawyers," quipped one
disabled lawyer at the conference. "No problem."

Several speakers mentioned the snafu.

"I think it's symbolic that we ended up at the P-1 level because we're
only going to move up," the EEOC's Dominguez said at the outset of her
talk.

Substantive discussions focused on how disability does or does not fit
with existing concepts of diversity, how and why hiring disabled lawyers
makes good
business sense, and best practices for law firms hiring disabled
lawyers.

At the outset of the conference, Scott C. LaBarre, a Denver litigator
who chairs the ABA Commission on Mental and Physical Disability Law,
explained how
much things have changed in the past 10 years for him.

LaBarre explained that he was active in the Young Lawyers Division and
went to his first YLD conference in 1996. When he entered the conference
room, someone
took him by the arm, said he was at the wrong meeting and began
escorting him out. LaBarre, who is blind, explained that he was a lawyer
and member of
the bar group.

His escort responded: "You're a lawyer! Oh, really. How did you do
that?"

Making reasonable accommodations for disabled lawyers can give law firms
insight into the workplace that also would help make things better for
all who
work there, said panelist Samuel R. Bagenstos, a professor at Washington
University School of Law in St. Louis who teaches clinical disability
law.

For example, Bagenstos said, offering flexible hours to a lawyer who
might need time off to take medication or visit a physician helps
supervisors understand
that those without disabilities need the same flexibility.

Another panelist, Judge Richard S. Brown of the Wisconsin Court of
Appeals, pointed out that those who got through law school and other
challenges in life
with disabilities should be seen as that much better at handling
adversity and dealing professionally with problems of others.

"They must possess abilities to advocate and negotiate," said Brown, who
is hearing impaired. He added that, when he was a litigator, he would
tell juries
about his difficulty at the outset, "and they'd pay more attention to me
than to my opponent."

Accommodating disabled lawyers is mostly a matter of education and
understanding for their employers and colleagues, according to the EEOC
fact sheet. The
publication points out that accommodations are not always needed and,
when they are, not usually very expensive.

The publication lists a number of examples. They include ramps and
doorways to accommodate wheelchairs, part-time employment, unpaid leave
when other leave
is exhausted, special equipment such as TTY devices for telephone-line
communications for the deaf (much like instant-messaging on the
Internet), and voice
recognition software for those unable to use a personal computer
keyboard.

Much of the discrimination against disabled lawyers stems from ignorance
on the part of employers and colleagues, not innate hostility, said
Judge David
S. Tatel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia
Circuit. Speaking at the conference luncheon, Tatel, who lost his
eyesight at age 32,
when he already was practicing law, said gradual changes made him
accepted by colleagues.

For example, when some of them gathered in a meeting room to go over
documents, the others would begin reading them silently. Eventually,
Tatel would loudly
clear his throat. They got the point and began reading aloud.

"It was the institution responding to the needs of one of its members,"
Tatel said.

The same thing occurred later with his colleagues on the court, and now,
he said, even when three-judge panels that do not include him meet, they
read aloud
to each other.

"The hiring people in law firms just don't have the experience they need
to be able to think about this issue intelligently," Tatel said.

Richard L. Thornburgh, the former U.S. attorney general who advocated
for the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, told the gathering
during his keynote
address that, while employment was one of the law's goals, the result
has been "mixed at best."

Thornburgh said legal employers must do more to integrate disability
into their diversity initiatives, including developing policies to make
the workplace
more welcoming to the disabled.

And that welcome would include accepting the differences in how some
disabled people look and communicate. One speaker emphasized the need
for disabled
lawyers to make their presence known and to network with others
similarly situated to join their voices.

"We need to integrate the workplace to the point that disability just
happens to be part of who we are," said Olegario D. Cantos VII, who is
blind. He is
the associate director on disabilities with the domestic policy council
in the White House.

Cantos urged other disabled lawyers to be active in the organized bar in
whatever substantive areas they feel passionate about, not just
disability issues.

EEOC commissioner Christine Griffin, who uses a wheelchair, offered a
concise message for legal employers: "Just hire us. Just hire us. Stop
ruminating
about all the problems. You already did that with women and minorities.
You'll be rewarded in the end."
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C2006 ABA Journal
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