Disability Law Journal at UCLA Law

Abstract

There is a vast and growing cause lawyering literature demonstrating how attorneys and their relationship to social justice movements matter greatly for law’s ability to engender progress. But to date, there has been no examination of the work of ADA disability cause lawyers as cause lawyers. Similarly, despite an extensive literature focused on the ADA’s revolutionary civil rights aspects and the manner in which the Supreme Court’s interpretation of that statute has stymied potential transformation of American society, no academic accounts of disability law have focused on the lawyers who bring these cases.

About the Authors

Michael Waterstone is Dean of UCLA School of Law. Prior to coming to UCLA Law, Waterstone was the Dean of LMU Loyola Law School and Senior Vice President of Loyola Marymount University. Dean Waterstone is a nationally recognized expert in disability and civil rights law. Throughout his legal career, Waterstone consulted on projects for the National Council on Disability and testified before the United States Senate on issues related to voters with disabilities and older voters. Internationally, he worked with foreign governments, non-governmental organizations, and academic institutions on disability rights laws in Israel, Japan, China, Bangladesh, Ireland, and Vietnam. He has published articles in the Harvard Law Review, Emory Law Review, Notre Dame Law Review, Minnesota Law Review, Duke Law Journal, Vanderbilt Law Review, William and Mary Law Review, and Northwestern Law Review, amongst others.

Michael Ashley Stein is the co-founder and Executive Director of the Harvard Law School Project on Disability, and a Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School since 2005. Considered one of the world’s leading experts on disability law and policy, Dr. Stein participated in the drafting of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; works with disabled peoples’ organizations and non-governmental organizations around the world; actively consults with governments on their disability laws and policies; advises an array of UN bodies and national human rights institutions; and has brought landmark disability rights litigation globally. Professor Stein has received numerous awards in recognition of his transformative work, including the National Order of Merit (Ecuador); USICD Dole/Harkin Award; Morton E. Ruderman Prize; Henry Viscardi Achievement Award; ABA Paul G. Hearne Award; and Harvard University Excellence in Accessibility and Inclusion Faculty Award. His authoritative and path-breaking scholarship of 288 academic publications and 11 books have been published worldwide by leading journals and academic presses and supported by fellowships and awards from the American Council of Learned Societies, National Endowment for the Humanities, and National Institute on Disability Rehabilitation and Research, among others. Dr. Stein teaches at Harvard Law School and Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and holds an Extraordinary Professorship at the University of Pretoria’s Centre for Human Rights. He earned a J.D. from Harvard Law School (becoming the first known person with a disability to be a member of the Harvard Law Review), and a Ph.D. from Cambridge University (W.M. Tapp Studentship). Professor Stein was appointed by President Obama to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council.

Professor Wilkins is the Lester Kissel Professor of Law, Vice Dean for Global Initiatives on the Legal Profession, and Faculty Director of the Center on the Legal Profession at Harvard Law School. He is also a Senior Research Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and a Fellow of the Harvard University Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics. Professor Wilkins has written over 80 articles on the legal profession in leading scholarly journals and the popular press and is the co-author (along with his Harvard Law School colleague Andrew Kaufman) of one of the leading casebooks in the field.  His current scholarly projects include Globalization, Lawyers, and Emerging Economies (where he directs over 50 researchers studying the impact of globalization on the market for legal services in rapidly developing countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe); After the JD (a ten-year nationwide longitudinal study of lawyers’ careers); The Harvard Law School Career Study (examining, among other things, differences in the experiences of male and female graduates and the careers of lawyers who do not practice law); and The New Social Engineers (charting the historical development and current experiences of black lawyers in corporate law practice). Professor Wilkins has given over 40 endowed lectures at universities around the world and is a frequent speaker at professional conferences and law firm and corporate retreats.  His recent academic honors include the 2012 Honorary Doctorate in Law from Stockholm University in Sweden, the 2012 Distinguished Visiting Mentor Award from Australia National University, the 2012 Genest Fellowship from Osgoode Hall Law School, the 2010 American Bar Foundation Scholar of the Year Award, the 2009 J. Clay Smith Award from Howard University School of Law, and the 2008 Order of the Coif Distinguished Visitor Fellowship.  In 2012, Professor Wilkins was elected as a Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.