ABA's Best Practices in Employing Lawyers with Disabilities Report

The Second National Conference on the Employment of Lawyers with Disabilities: A Report from the American Bar Association to the Legal Profession (2009) provides guidance on the best practices for employment of lawyers with disabilities as well as mentoring, retaining and promoting lawyers with disabilities. Additionally, there is guidance and insight as to how lawyers and law students with disabilities can attain employment. Topics covered in the Report include:

• The status of lawyers and law students with disabilities, including statistics and surveys, and why we need lawyers with disabilities in the profession
• How to make the transition from law school to the workplace with a disability
• How and why you should recruit, hire, retain, and promote lawyers with disabilities
• Personal stories and anecdotes from lawyers with disabilities, including the first blind U.S. Supreme Court clerk, an associate General Counsel, and an official from President Obama's White House staff
• Why it is important for legal employers to pledge their commitment to disability diversity with the Pledge for Change
• Practical tips on how to make your place of employment both welcoming and legally compliant for those with disabilities
• A one-stop source for disability information in the legal profession, such as: ABA programs and policies for lawyers and law students with disabilities, state and local bar programs for lawyers with disabilities, national disability law organizations, and scholarship information for law students with disabilities.

The Report also urges people to sign the Commission’s Disability Diversity in the Legal Profession: A Pledge for Change which encourages legal employers to implement and promote disability diversity in the legal profession. [JH]