[blindlaw] Employment of Disabled Lawyers, Texas Bar Presentation

[Kathleen Hagen]

A very good and very telling article!

In 1999, the Minnesota Hennepin County Bar formed a taskforce and 
interviewed attorneys with disabilities.  (They were informally found and 
most of them wouldn't agree to be interviewed even when their comments would 
be annonymously included in the report.  I was on that taskforce.  We 
finally put out a report.  This was just one of several reports done in 
Minnesota:  women hitting the glass ceiling, attorneys of color not finding 
jobs, gay attorneys not being able to come out at work, etc.  We didn't have 
any good statistics about anything.  One thing we did notice though was 
that, while attorneys who were disabled when applying for jobs were less 
likely to get hired, if they were hired they were accommodated.  People knew 
from the outset what they wanted or needed to do the job.  Attorneys who had 
invisible disabilities and didn't disclose them, or attorneys who became 
disabled later, had a much tougher time getting accommodated.  I think all 
the attorneys we interviewed worked for the public sector, including me.

In 2006, the Minnesota State Bar Assoc.'s Diversity Taskforce decided to do 
a more thorough survey.  This time, they put out a notice in every bar 
publication of any county, etc.  They set up focus groups for the various 
diversities.  I attended the one on disabilities, and again no one was there 
from a private firm.

This study also included a survey sent to law firms and agencies all over 
the state asking them to identify whether they had women attorneys, 
attorneys of color, gay-lesbian attorneys, and, as of 2000-2006, attorneys 
with disabilities.  I don't remember any disclosed attorneys for firms, and 
the final percentage over-all of attorneys with disabilities working in 
Minnesota was less than one percent!  So, yeah, I agree.  We still have 
problems finding jobs.  But now that people are starting to talk about it at 
various bar conventions, for example, maybe things will change.

For myself, I've made the decision I wouldn't even want to work for a firm. 
The kind of selling your soul to the firm, and living in a very restricted 
way not showing differences from anyone else, and the hierarchy of persons 
you are expected to lunch with, is to my mind entirely stultifying.  At  a 
Minnesota Women Lawyers meeting once, a female attorney from a prestigious 
firm got up and told us that as women attorneys, even if we were not invited 
to eat with our male counterparts, we must under no circumstances eat with 
the paralegals or the clerical staff.  We would lose status if we did. 
Well, I just can't live that way.
Kathy Hagen
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ford, Tim (DHS-OLS)" <TFord at dhs.ca.gov>
To: "NFBnet Blind Law Mailing List" <blindlaw at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Wednesday, January 03, 2007 1:54 PM
Subject: [blindlaw] Employment of Disabled Lawyers, Texas Bar Presentation


An article on an address given by a blind Texas lawyer to his state bar 
convention.  The address was on the status of employment of disabled 
lawyers.


----------

Texas Lawyer


©2007 Texas Lawyer Online
Page printed from:
http://www.texaslawyer.com


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reasonable Accommodations

Brenda Sapino Jeffreys
Texas Lawyer
01-01-2007

It's been nearly 16 years since the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 
went into effect. Lawyers with disabilities say it's still tough to get big
firm jobs, despite the ADA and despite advances in technology that help 
lawyers with disabilities handle legal work.

"Most attorneys who are blind or visually impaired work for the government 
or work in solo practice," says Chris D. Prentice, a solo practitioner in 
Plainview
who is legally blind. "Very few law firms even give a second look to 
attorneys with disabilities, especially those with visual impairment."

Prentice says that with the aid of technology he can find a way to do 
virtually anything a lawyer without limited vision can do. For instance, he 
has adaptive
software on his computer, including a program that reads him what's on the 
screen and another that magnifies documents to a size he can read. For 
documents
such as letters from other lawyers, Prentice says he uses a closed-circuit 
television system that provides better contrast - and therefore readability
- on the documents. To examine written evidence in court, he brings along a 
portable television system to magnify the documents.

But Prentice, who worked in government jobs prior to a six-year stint as 
county attorney in Hale County, says that even with years of experience, 
he's
had trouble landing a firm job.

"I've been practicing law for almost 19 years. People who know me and have 
dealt with me in the courtroom, I suppose they respect me, but I've never 
had
anybody come to me and say, "Hey, come work for us.'"

Prentice, who was only 18 months old when a virus damaged the optic nerves 
in his eyes, says he would like to leave solo practice and work at a firm 
for
financial reasons. He is married with a 15-year-old son.

Prentice's experience isn't unusual, according to several lawyers with 
disabilities or those who deal with disability issues. Because of that, the 
State
Bar of Texas' Disability Issues Committee conducted a continuing legal 
education seminar Dec. 5 about the issues surrounding the employment of 
lawyers
with disabilities.

Mitchell Katine, chairman of the committee, says he organized the Employment 
of Attorneys with Disabilities seminar to get people talking about the issue
and to help educate Texas firms about the law so they are more willing to 
hire lawyers with disabilities. It is timely, Katine says, because the U.S. 
Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission issued a fact sheet in May detailing 
reasonable accommodations employers must provide, under the ADA, to lawyers 
who
work for them.

"I don't think we have made much progress in that area, and I think it's 
acceptable at most places to have the presumption that if a blind lawyer 
knocks
on your door for a job to say, "Really, how is this going to work?' " Katine 
says.

"Most firms still have those stereotypes. That's the problem. It's just 
going to be a matter of time and education," says Katine, a partner in 
Houston's
Williams, Birnberg & Andersen.

Under the ADA, a worker with a disability must notify his employer that he 
needs a reasonable accommodation, which is any change in the work 
environment
or the way the job is performed that enables the individual to have equal 
employment opportunities.

A fact sheet the EEOC issued in May includes several examples of the kinds 
of accommodation a lawyer with a disability might request, such as 
voice-recognition
software, which would make it easier for a lawyer with cerebral palsy to use 
a computer keyboard; a secretary to transcribe tapes for a learning-disabled
lawyer who finds it easier to dictate documents than type them himself; or a 
portable-assisted-listening device for a lawyer with deteriorating hearing.
But the ADA requires the lawyer to make the request for accommodation in a 
timely manner - not after negative job reviews.

Sharon Rennert, a senior attorney adviser in the EEOC's ADA division in 
Washington, D.C., says the fact sheet contains bedrock ADA principles as 
they pertain
to white collar legal jobs. Some of the examples included in the fact sheet 
are based on real-life experiences of disabled lawyers and others are made
up to illustrate a provision of the law, she says.

Managing partners at a few large Texas firms say they do employ lawyers with 
disabilities, but the numbers apparently aren't large. It's difficult to be
precise, because several panelists at the State Bar seminar on Dec. 5 say 
they cannot find any statistics identifying where disabled lawyers work in 
Texas
- or even the number of disabled lawyers in Texas. Pat Pound, executive 
director of the Texas Governor's Committee on People with Disabilities, says 
the
committee has no statistics on lawyers with disabilities. Neither does the 
State Bar, says spokeswoman Kim Davey.

Brian East, a senior attorney at Advocacy Inc. in Austin, a federally funded 
agency that represents people with disabilities in various areas, says, "I
read a bunch of material in preparation for my talk. Everybody just said 
there are no reliable figures."

"Some don't choose to self-identify," he says.

East says his job is assisting disabled individuals with problems with 
employers, with obtaining special education benefits, with barriers in 
government
offices or private business, and with obtaining Medicaid benefits for their 
disability. Anecdotally, he says he can only think of a few lawyers ever 
seeking
assistance from Advocacy Inc.

"I can't recall an employment case involving a law firm. I can recall cases 
where we've had clients who were not given interpreters or otherwise had 
access
[to] interpreting at a law office," East says. "I don't think we've had a 
lawyer coming in here, asking for help with an employment issue."

Prentice says that disabled lawyers have more opportunity to land a job in 
the public sector than at large Texas firms. He says it's because of a 
precursor
to the ADA, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which prohibits agencies that 
receive federal funding from discriminating in hiring against individuals 
with
disabilities.

"We have always been a very inclusive environment, both on women, minorities 
and lawyers with disabilities," says Joseph Dilg, managing partner of Vinson
& Elkins. "We don't have a special emphasis on trying to find lawyers with 
disabilities, but to the extent we meet people, we try to make every 
accommodation
to see [that] they utilize their talents."

Dilg says the firm has some "very successful" lawyers with disabilities. One 
declined an interview request and another did not respond to an interview
request delivered through firm spokesman Darrin Schlegel.

At Houston-based Bracewell & Giuliani, the firm's disabled lawyers include 
an intellectual property associate who uses a wheelchair and a partner with
hearing loss, says Jennifer Jacobs, the firm's general counsel for 
professional development.

"There may be others with medical conditions but none that require 
accommodation," says Jacobs, a partner in Houston.

Jacobs says the partner lost hearing while at the firm, but the associate 
was using a wheelchair when a summer clerk for the firm. She says the 
accommodations
provided the associate, such as a pass for close-in parking, a printer in 
his office and assistance on getting files on computer equipment that he can
easily use are simple tasks for the firm.

"Technology has made it infinitely easier for all kinds of things," she 
says.

But some disabilities can't be accommodated with technology or modifications 
to the work environment. For instance, as the EEOC fact sheet points out,
the ADA only obligates an employer to provide an accommodation if it doesn't 
create "undue hardship" for the employer, financially and operationally. The
EEOC gives the example of a city government lawyer who seeks and is granted 
a modified work schedule due to a disability. However, due to that limited
work schedule, the lawyer is missing deadlines and other attorneys in the 
office end up with more work. That schedule, according to the EEOC fact 
sheet,
is causing an undue hardship on the office.

Jacobs finds it difficult to believe that lawyers with disabilities believe 
big firms aren't willing to hire lawyers with disabilities. However, she 
notes,
it really depends on the kind of disability. "You really have to look at it 
on a case-by-case basis," she says.

Varying Experience

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, who has used a wheelchair since a 
jogging accident in 1984, declines comment on the issue of disabled lawyers 
working
at firms. Abbott was a partner in Bracewell's Austin office after he left 
the Texas Supreme Court and before he was elected AG.

Jeff Curtis is of counsel at Haynes and Boone in Richardson. He was 
diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1997 and says the firm has been 
"awesome." He
says lawyers in management at the firm have asked him on more than one 
occasion if there's anything he needs to make it easier for him to do his 
job.

Curtis, who works in the financial transactions practice group, says he 
hasn't asked for any formal accommodations under the ADA, but he has been 
using
a lightweight motorized wheelchair to get around the office since he moved 
from the Dallas office to the Richardson office about a year and a half ago.
Curtis says he relies on the wheelchair, because he cannot walk long 
distances or stand on his feet for a long time.

Curtis says he has no trouble doing his job, because travel is a rarity, and 
he can usually work around that by using technology such as 
videoconferencing.
Curtis says he's keeping a positive attitude, and not thinking about any 
other accommodations he might need if his condition worsens.

Curtis didn't face the hiring issue, because he had been working at Haynes 
and Boone for 10 years before his diagnosis. He left the firm in 1998 to 
take
a job as general counsel at On-Target Supplies & Logistics in Dallas, but he 
returned to the firm in late 1999 because he missed the pure practice of 
law.
Curtis says the firm welcomed him back, even though he was then using a cane 
for walking. He says he disclosed his illness to the firm shortly after his
diagnosis in 1997, so it was not an issue when he sought to return.

Curtis says Haynes and Boone has been nothing but accommodating to his 
disability, but he notes that some attorneys with disabilities may not seek 
out
firm jobs because they can be so demanding.

Getting hired is the hurdle, says Wendy Wilkinson, a lawyer who is project 
director for the Disability Law Resource Center at the Southwest Disability
and Business Technical Assistance Center in Houston.

Wilkinson, a quadriplegic who uses a wheelchair, spoke at the seminar about 
several uncomfortable job interviews after law school, including the time 
her
wheelchair got caught in an Oriental rug in a lawyer's office and another 
time when a table full of attorneys greeted her with a 
deer-caught-in-the-headlights
look when she wheeled into the interview room.

She also said she lost out on jobs at firms that she declines to identify 
because of issues the firm raised, such as her inability to climb stairs or 
reach
books on the top shelves in a library. She says she did clerk at a couple 
firms and at the Florida Supreme Court while at Florida State University 
College
of Law.

But landing a firm job after graduation was another matter, Wilkinson said 
in a telephone interview after the seminar. "I had lots of interviews, but 
when
I showed up, that's really where I encountered the barrier," she says.

As Prentice related at the seminar, his first job after graduating from 
Texas Tech University School of Law in 1986 was as an assistant municipal 
court
prosecutor for the city of Lubbock. After his prosecutor job, Prentice says 
he worked for Advocacy Inc. and was county attorney in Hale County for six
years, until he lost a reelection bid in 2004. He says his disability was 
not an issue in the election.

After he lost the election, though, he started sending out rÈsumÈs but is 
discouraged that he's been offered only a handful of interviews for jobs at 
firms
or elsewhere.

Since he left office, he's had a general practice in Plainview.

"How long do you have to prove yourself?" Prentice says.

"It's 16 years after the passage of the ADA. Shouldn't we have something 
appropriate to show that it's doing something good?" he asks.

Lacey Gorley, a partner in Bracewell in Austin who defends EEOC litigation, 
said during the seminar that misconceptions about disabled lawyers create 
barriers
to job opportunities at firms. She rattled off a list of misconceptions: 
Clients won't have confidence in a disabled lawyer. The ADA doesn't apply to 
firms.
All lawyers working at a firm must be able to handle a court hearing at a 
moment's notice. It's impossible to fire a disabled lawyer.

Gorley says all of those beliefs are false. She says that just as firms hire 
female and minority lawyers, firms should also be willing to hire disabled
lawyers.

"In medium-to-large firms, you do not see disabled individuals applying very 
frequently. They are not applying, I believe, because it would be futile,"
Gorley said at the Dec. 5 seminar.

Gorley also noted that many disabled lawyers who work at firms don't want to 
be identified as such, and some even fail to ask for accommodations.

"They don't want the stigma that's going to come with that. They don't want 
the consequence of that. That's going back to the culture of the firm. If 
you
identify yourself as different, as having a different need, is that going to 
have a negative connotation?" Gorley said.

Joe Bontke, an ombudsman at the EEOC office in Houston, says he believes 
lawyers with disabilities currently have greater opportunity in the public 
sector
simply because he's not seeing many working at firms. Bontke says firm 
leaders might change their attitude once they learn that it's usually 
inexpensive
to provide accommodations for lawyers with disabilities.

Bontke says he only gets about a call a month from an attorney or a law 
student about a disability issue.

Michelle Hoogendam Cash, a legal recruiter in Houston and former employment 
lawyer at Bracewell, says she can't recall an instance where a lawyer with
a disability as defined by the ADA came to her for assistance with finding a 
job. Neither does recruiter Elaine Makris Williams of MS Legal Search in 
Houston.
Lee Albritton of Amicus Search Group in Austin says he can "count on one 
hand" the number of disabled job candidates whom he's talked to in nine 
years
as a recruiter.

Cash, president of Pemberton Legal Search Corp., says, "It is just a matter 
of there aren't going to be that many lawyers who actually have apparent 
disability."
She adds, "What I generally see as a more common situation is a lawyer who 
doesn't have a disability, but may have a temporary situation, usually a 
pregnancy."


Cash, who is certified in employment law by the Texas Board of Legal 
Specialization and knows the ADA, says accommodation for a disability is 
much more
likely to come up in the accommodation context than at the time of hiring.

Albritton says he did place a visually impaired lawyer at a litigation firm 
in Houston - he says she has since moved to California - and arranged some
interviews for a military veteran with a physical disability from a 
battlefield injury, but Albritton says it's probably true that lawyers with 
disabilities
may have difficulty in getting hired by firms.

"I think it totally depends on the nature of the disability," he says. "If 
somebody has a non-obvious disability, for example an immune disorder or a 
blood
disability, I don't see that as much of an impediment as an outwardly 
visible disability."
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