Since November 1996, Barry Taylor has been the Legal Advocacy Director at Equip for Equality, Inc., the Illinois Protection and Advocacy system, in which he supervises the legal services, self-advocacy and training programs. Taylor has also overseen many individual and systemic disability discrimination cases including successful federal ADA suits against the National Board of Medical Examiners, the Chicago Police Department, the Chicago Transit Authority and he is currently co-counsel in two class actions on behalf of people with developmental disabilities and mental illness living in large private facilities who are seeking community services. He also oversees the agency's self-advocacy training project, which in its first ten years trained approximately 33,000 people with disabilities on the ADA, guardianship, transportation, voting, employment, and special education. Taylor has also given numerous presentations on the ADA across the country to people with disabilities, employers, service providers and advocacy organizations. Prior to becoming Legal Advocacy Director, he was a Senior Attorney for Equip for Equality, and his primary focus was systemic litigation and education under the ADA.
Taylor has been the Chairperson of the Disability Rights Consortium; Chairperson of Season of Concern (Chicago AIDS fundraising organization); Chairperson of the Legal Committee for the National Association of Protection and Advocacy Systems, Chairperson of the Chicago Bar Association's Legal Aid Committee, Chairperson of the Chicago Bar Association's Mental Health and Disability Law Committee, and he oversees the Illinois ADA Project. Taylor has served as an Adjunct Professor at John Marshall Law School, and in 2001, Chicago Lawyer Magazine named Taylor one of "40 Illinois Attorneys Under 40 to Watch."
Prior to coming to Equip for Equality, Taylor was the AIDS Project Attorney in the Midwest Regional Office of Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund working to advance the civil rights for people living with HIV/AIDS. His caseload included a successful challenge to discriminatory inquiries by the Chicago Public Schools on teacher applications. His work at Lambda also included extensive education work regarding HIV/AIDS and the ADA.
From 1988 - 1993, Taylor was a litigation associate at the Chicago law firm of Peterson & Ross. He is a graduate of the University of Illinois College of Law, where he also received his undergraduate degree
Alan Goldstein is a Senior Attorney at Equip for Equality (EFE), the Illinois Protection and Advocacy agency for people with disabilities. At EFE, Alan manages the PABSS Project (Protection and Advocacy for Beneficiaries of Social Security), which provides training, outreach, and advocacy for Social Security Beneficiaries who desire to work. He also manages the Illinois ADA Project which provides Americans with Disabilities Act information and trainings to businesses, judges, attorneys, service providers, people with disabilities, government agencies, and other organizations.
Mr. Goldstein is a graduate of the DePaul University College of Law and the University of Illinois, Champaign, where he received a Bachelor of Art's degree in Economics. He has been practicing law for over 20 years and has been handling disability related cases for over 15 years. Mr. Goldstein has experience in federal, state, and administrative litigation. Mr. Goldstein’s volunteer work includes being named as a coach of the 1996 U.S. Paralympic Powerlifting Team.
Brian graduated from the University of Texas School of Law in 1977. He worked at legal aid for two years, and in private practice for 14 years, before joining Advocacy, Inc., a non-profit corporation advocating for the rights of people with disabilities. Brian has handled a number of disability-discrimination and disability-rights cases in state and federal court, and has written and lectured extensively on these issues.
Brian is currently a Board Member of both the National Employment Lawyers Association (NELA) and the Texas Employment Lawyers Association (TELA). He also is the Chair of NELA's Disability Rights Committee, serves on the Legal Advocacy Subcommittee of the American Diabetes Association, and in the past has served on the legal committees of the National Disability Rights Network and of AIDS Services of Austin. He is the co-author and editor of the chapter on "Workers with Disabilities" in the Employee & Union Member Guide to Labor Law (Thompson/West). Brian was named a "SuperLawyer" by Texas Monthly magazine for 2003-2009, and he received the 2003 Excellence in Public Interest award from the Texas Law Fellowships, and the 2008 Martha Arbuckle Meritorious Service Award from the Austin Mayor's Committee for People with Disabilities.
Deborah L. Hamilton works as a trial attorney in the Chicago District Office of the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a position she has held since the spring of 2001. Ms. Hamilton is 1992 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania. She earned her law degree from the University of Michigan in 1996. Prior to joining the EEOC, Ms. Hamilton practiced law at Jones Day Reavis & Pogue and served as a law clerk for The Honorable Harry T. Edwards, at the time the chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and then for The Honorable Justice David H. Souter of the United States Supreme Court.
While working at the EEOC, Ms. Hamilton was part of the team that litigated EEOC's age discrimination suit against the law firm of Sidley & Austin, which settled for $27.5 million in the fall of 2007. Ms. Hamilton also served on the trial team in EEOC v. Custom Companies, which won a $2.35 million jury verdict for three female sales representatives in a sexual harassment case. Ms. Hamilton is currently one of the EEOC trial attorneys litigating a class Americans with Disabilities Act case against Supervalu. The Supervalu case follows the recent $6.3 million settlement of a class Americans with Disabilities Act case against Sears, which Ms. Hamilton also litigated.
C. Talley Wells is an Attorney and Director of the Mental Health and Disability Rights Project at the Atlanta Legal Aid Society, Inc. He advocates for housing and services in the community on behalf of clients with disabilities who are confined in Georgia institutions and nursing homes or who are at risk of institutionalization. His focus is enforcing the United States Supreme Court decision in Olmstead v. L.C., which held that individuals with disabilities have the right to live in the most integrated setting under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Talley and his wife, Laura, are part of a group working to open a L'Arche community for adults with developmental disabilities in Atlanta. He is the Treasurer of the Georgia Behavioral Health Coalition and a board member of the Georgia Supportive Housing Association and The Center for Working Families. He is a 2011 alumnus of Leadership Atlanta. He attended Duke University and Duke School of Law. Talley is a former skipper on the world famous Jungle Cruise at Walt Disney World.
The ADA Audio Conference Series is Coordinated by the Great Lakes ADA Center. For assistance with any of our conferences contact us at (877) ADA - 1990 or (877) 232 - 1990 (V/TTY). We reserve the right to cancel sessions at any time without notice. A full refund will be provided for all paid sessions should the sessions be cancelled.