[blindlaw] Disability rights Organizations

[Tai Tomasi]

Sanho:

I work for Disability Rights Iowa. It is a member of the National Disability Rights Network (NDRN). NDRN consists of similar disability rights organizations in all states and territories. These organizations are funded primarily through federal grants, but some have fundraising arms that allow them to do work which is prohibited under federal grants. For example, some of these organizations raise funds enabling them to lobby legislators, something our federal grants prohibit us from doing.

In addition to this network of congressionally funded organizations, many other nonprofits engage in disability rights work. There are ample opportunities to do disability rights work within state and federal governments through civil rights commissions, the Department of Justice, the Department of Education Office for Civil Rights, and the Department of Health and Human Services office for civil rights. There are also several private firms which do some work related to disability rights. One of the best ways to learn about all of these firms and organizations is to attend the tenBroek Disability Law Symposium which is held at the National Federation of the Blind headquarters each March. Many disability rights firms send people to this conference. It is the largest such conference of its kind.

There is endless work to be done in this field. In my experience, the job market is very stable, though it is a relatively small field, meaning there are relatively few disability rights firms. The work is highly rewarding, and I enjoy it. Below is a list of disability law firms. By no means is this an exhaustive list:
Sample of Private Firms:
LaBarre Law: Scott LaBarre runs his own private practice. He is a blind lawyer on this email list.  (Denver, Colorado)
TRE Legal: Tim is another blind lawyer who has his own practice. He is on this email list.  (Freemont, California)
Brown, Goldstein & Levy (Baltimore, Maryland)
Stein & Vargas (DC area)
Relman, Dane and Colfax (DC)
Rosen, Bien, Galvan and Grunfeld (San Francisco, California)
CREEC, (Denver, Colorado)
Nonprofit firms outside the National Disability Rights Network:
The Center for Public Representation (DC and Boston)
Disability Rights Advocates (Berkeley, California and New York City)
The Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs
  


 
-----Original Message-----
From: BlindLaw <blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Sanho Steele-Louchart via BlindLaw
Sent: Sunday, June 9, 2019 4:33 AM
To: blindlaw at nfbnet.org
Cc: Sanho Steele-Louchart <sanho817 at gmail.com>
Subject: [blindlaw] Disability rights Organizations

Hello,

I'm interested in learning more about disability rights organizations. How are they funded? What is it like working for one? If one doesn't exist in your local practice area, how might you start one, and how do you keep costs minimal or nonexistent for clients? I'm imagining state/federal funding or a combination of federal dollars and donations. I have an indescribable passion for disability rights work, but I'm not sure how stable the job market is for attorneys who specialize in it. 

Warmth,
Sanho


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