| Disability Rights Law Clinic | ||
The Disability Rights Law Clinic (DRLC) is WCL’s newest clinic, having begun operation in Fall 2005. Professor Robert Dinerstein directs the clinic. The DRLC is a two-semester clinic in which law students, under faculty supervision, represent clients in a variety of substantive areas and venues related to disability law and people with disabilities (both mental and physical). During its first two years, most of the clinic’s cases were in the area of special education (in both Washington, DC, and Maryland), though we have also handled cases under the Americans with Disabilities Act and matters involving the intersection between the criminal justice system and mental disability. In the future, client matters will likely be drawn in addition from among the following areas: representing people with intellectual disabilities (mental retardation) in guardianship proceedings and in periodic review hearings held in connection with the Evans v. Williams case (regarding the class of individuals formerly confined at Forest Haven, the District of Columbia’s now-closed institution for people with mental retardation); grievance proceedings within the DC Department of Mental Health; additional cases under the Americans with Disabilities Act (especially Title III, access to places of public accommodation, and possibly employment discrimination under Title I); and disability cases before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. In addition, from time to time the clinic has and will continue to take on broader advocacy or related projects. For example, during AY 2005-06, one student team analyzed a newly-passed guardianship law for people with disabilities and their families in Chile. In 2006-07, the DRLC took on a major project in assisting the Evaluation Panel serving to monitor the District of Columbia Public Schools’ (DCPS) compliance with the Consent Decree entered (in August 2006) in the Blackman-Jones litigation, two consolidated cases in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia that address the timeliness of due process hearings in special education cases and the requirement that Hearing Officer Decisions in such cases be implemented in a timely manner. Clinic students have conducted interviews of parents, parents’ attorneys, general education and special education teachers, and DCPS personnel, and written up their findings, as part of the Evaluation Panel’s assessment of DCPS’s compliance with the decree. The DRLC will look to participate in comparable clinic-wide projects during AY 2007-08. As in the other WCL clinics, the DRLC emphasizes the importance of the student functioning in role as an attorney for the client(s). Students have primary responsibility for handling all aspects of the client’s case, from initial interview through meetings (such as IEP meetings in special education case) and any contested hearing or trial (and, if necessary, appeal). Students also have the opportunity to interact with clients with a range of disabilities, and with their family members, and to explore the nature of the lawyer-client relationship with such clients. In addition, we will focus on the various ways in which society in general, and the legal system in particular, deals with people with disabilities. In both casework and in the seminar, students will learn pre-litigation skills (interviewing, counseling, negotiation, development of case theory), litigation skills (direct examination, cross-examination, openings and closings), dealing with expert witnesses, and, possibly, mediation skills (if we take on mediation matters). Inevitably, as well, students will confront ethical issues that arise in the practice of law, as clinics, including the DRLC, provide excellent sites for learning about, and reflecting upon, ethical issues that can be straightforward or complex. Students will receive a total of seven (7) credits per semester to cover the weekly clinic seminar, case rounds, and work on clinic cases. Evidence is a co-requisite for the DRLC—if not taken already, it can be taken during the summer or fall 2007 semester, but no later than the fall 2007 semester. There is no pre-requisite for the DRLC, though Special Education Law (LAW-750, taught by adjunct professor Sy Dubow), and Law and Disability (LAW-715, taught by Professor Dinerstein) may be helpful given their focus on various aspects of disability law. This is an exciting time to have a clinic in disability rights. At the national level, statutes such as the Americans with Disabilities Act, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act have led to a burgeoning of the rights of people with disabilities (even as judicial interpretations of these and other laws have sometimes limited their intended scope) and heightened visibility of people with disabilities in all aspects of public life. Locally, a combination of federal court cases and local legislation has given people with disabilities additional rights. At the international level, regional bodies, such as the Inter-American Commission, are beginning to become more active in protecting the rights of people with disabilities, and the recently-adopted UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (adopted by the UN General Assembly on December 13, 2006; open for signature by States and regional organizations on March 30, 2007) offers exciting possibilities for future developments in disability advocacy from a human rights perspective. At the same time, people with disabilities continue to be subjected to societal discrimination, whether because of animus or thoughtlessness, and stigma that limits their opportunities for full participation in society. |
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