Thanks to the generous support of our donors, Disability Rights Advocates is pleased to make available on our website and in our offices the work of artists from the National Institute of Art & Disabilities (NIAD). NIAD provides an art program that promotes creativity, independence, dignity, and community integration for people with developmental and other disabilities.
William F. Alderman is a partner at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP in San Francisco, where he specializes in commercial litigation, dispute resolution and counseling relating to securities law, technology, business torts, employee benefits and other matters. He is a 1970 graduate of Yale Law School, serves as a director of Bay Area Legal Aid, and has previously been a director of the Bar Association of San Francisco (audit committee chair), the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, the Bay Area chapter of the National MS Society, and the St. Thomas More Society of San Francisco (president). He has served as a court-appointed mediator, arbitrator and evaluator for the U.S. District Court since 1988. His career-long commitment to pro bono representation has included collaboration with DRA and other disability rights organizations on numerous matters, work on significant Supreme Court cases such as Bakke v. Regents of the University of California and Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, and recruitment and supervision of other Orrick lawyers on hundreds of matters covering a wide variety of public interest issues such as eviction defense, human trafficking, minority businesses, discrimination and consumer protection. His pro bono efforts have been recognized by the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, which honored him with its Robert J. Sproul award in 1996. Mr. Alderman is a co-editor of the Securities Reform Act Litigation Reporter, has written chapters for the treatises Business and Commercial Litigation in the Federal Courts and Successful Partnering Between Inside and Outside Counsel, and writes and speaks frequently on securities and other litigation topics.
Leslie Aoyama Diversity Affairs Director for Nordstrom, Northern California/Hawaii region. After graduating from UC Davis, she joined Nordstrom, Inc. in 1985. She has served in various HR roles within the organization and in her current position as Regional Diversity Affairs Director for over 12 years. Leslie supports the full line Nordstrom and RACK stores in her region through educating and training employees on employment related subjects, supporting recruitment and community outreach efforts and managing employee relations matters. Previously, Leslie has been involved with the California School for the Deaf, Riverside, The Center for Independent Living in Berkeley, and most recently been serving on the San Francisco’s Mayor’s Committee on Employment for People with Disabilities.
Mark A. Chavez is a partner at Chavez and Gertler, a leading firm representing plaintiffs in major consumer class action and private attorney general cases. Mr. Chavez received his J.D. from Stanford Law School in 1979, where he was the Managing Editor of the Stanford Environmental Law Annual. Mr. Chavez has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Stanford Public Interest Law Foundation and the National Association of Consumer Advocates.
Linda Dardarian joined Goldstein, Demchak, Baller, Borgen & Dardarian in September 1991. She became a partner of the firm in January 1998. Ms. Dardarian has extensive experience in litigating class action employment discrimination, disability access, and wage and hour cases, and has litigated landmark citizen suits brought to enforce the Clean Water Act. Ms. Dardarian was named in "Northern California Super Lawyers - The Top Attorneys in Northern California," Law & Politics August 2005, 2006 and 2007 for her employment law work. She was noted in California Lawyer Magazine’s December 2000 listing of the Lawyers of the Year for her work, with co-counsel Lainey Feingold, in making financial institutions’ automated teller machines, websites and printed materials accessible to persons with vision impairments. She was also awarded the 2007 Special Achievement Award by the American Council of the Blind and the 2001 Access Award by the American Foundation for the Blind, for representing the California Council of the Blind in obtaining major financial institutions’ commitments to install talking ATMs for persons with vision impairments. Ms. Dardarian has an AV Peer Review rating with Martindale-Hubbell.
Benjamin Foss is Head Researcher for Assistive Technologies in Intel Corporation’s Digital Health Group. He is also President and Founder of the Initiative for Learning Identities (ILI), non-profit, public benefit corporation based in San Francisco, Calif. ILI aims to help adults with learning disabilities become more independent. He is dyslexic and was in special education throughout elementary school. Ben holds a JD/MBA from Stanford University and a Masters Degree in Philosophy from the University of Edinburgh. Before graduate school, Ben worked for the White House National Economic Council and for the Children's Defense Fund in Washington, D.C. He was also Vice President for SSB Technologies, a software and consulting firm that helps make websites accessible to people with disabilities. Clients included Monster.com, the Social Security Administration and Adobe Software. He was also a Marshall and Truman Scholar and was part of a World Record Leap Frogging Team, helping set the 1988 record of 888 miles.
Lucy Lee Helm joined Starbucks Coffee Company in 1999. As senior vice president and deputy general counsel in Starbucks Law & Corporate Affairs Department, Ms. Helm leads the Litigation and Brand Protection team. This team supports the Company’s litigation, intellectual property, and marketing and advertising communications. Ms. Helm previously led the Starbucks Global Business (Commercial) team, the Litigation and Employment team and, for several years, managed Starbucks corporate records management program. Ms. Helm also serves as the executive sponsor of the Starbucks Law Department pro bono committee.
In addition to her work at Starbucks, Ms. Helm currently serves as board chair of the Washington YMCA Youth & Government Program, is a board member of Disability Rights Advocates, a non-profit disability law center in Berkeley, CA, and is an active volunteer with Parkview Services, a Seattle based non-profit organization providing housing and other services to persons with disabilities
Ms. Helm received her BA, with highest honors, from the University of Louisville and is a cum laude graduate of the University of Louisville School of Law. Prior to joining Starbucks Law & Corporate Affairs Department, Ms. Helm was a principal at Riddell Williams P.S., in Seattle, where she specialized in commercial, insurance coverage and environmental litigation, and was a commercial litigator with Barnett & Alagia in Louisville, Kentucky. Ms. Helm was also an assistant director and advocacy director at the Center for Accessible Living in Louisville, Kentucky.
Starbucks Coffee Company is the leading retailer, roaster and brand of specialty coffee in the world, with more than 15,000 retail locations in North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and the Pacific Rim. Starbucks provides an uplifting experience that enriches people’s lives one moment, one human being, one extraordinary cup of coffee at a time. To share in the experience, visit www.starbucks.com.
Pat Kirkpatrick served as Development Director at Disability Rights Advocates for 13 years. She is currently a fundraising consultant. Prior to her work at DRA, Pat founded and managed a catering business, Clausen House Catering, which was a work training program for adults with developmental/cognitive disabilities. After 6 years of running the highly successful non profit catering business, the Kennedy family supported her with a grant to replicate the business in Massachusetts. Pat has her Master’s degree in teaching English as a second/foreign language and taught English writing and literature at U.C. Berkeley and U.C. Extension for several years.
Joshua Konecky is a partner at Schneider Wallace Cottrell Brayton Konecky LLP. Prior to joining Schneider Wallace Cottrell Brayton Konecky LLP in 2004, Mr. Konecky litigated national disability rights class actions at Disability Rights Advocates in Oakland, CA, as well as employment discrimination and minimum wage & hour class actions at the public interest law firm of Saperstein, Goldstein, Demchak & Baller, also in Oakland. His extensive experience includes trial and appellate work in federal and state court. Mr. Konecky also has authored and edited publications on discrimination and employment law, and he frequently lectures on these subjects as well.
Joshua Konecky is a former Skadden Public Interest Law Fellow, U.S. Fulbright Scholar in Argentina, and judicial law clerk for the Honorable Lawrence K. Karlton, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California. He holds a J.D. from New York University School of Law (1995) and a B.A. from Haverford College (1990). Mr. Konecky is a member of the State Bar of California, the National Employment Lawyers Association, the California Employment Lawyers Association, and the San Francisco Trial Lawyers Association. He sits on the board of directors for the Center on Race Poverty and the Environment
Janice L. Lehrer-Stein has been a resident of San Francisco for 27 years. Born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Janice graduated from Yale University in 1978 cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in American History, attended University of Toronto and Harvard Law Schools, and was admitted to the State Bars of the District of Columbia (1981) and California (1984). Janice practiced labor litigation, constitutional and employment discrimination law with Shaw, Pittman, Potts & Trowbridge in Washington D.C., and Thelen, Marrin, Johnson and Bridges in San Francisco. Janice retired from private law practice to raise her three children, and assist in the management of a family business. Janice has dedicated her time and energy to the non-profit sector, serving as an officer of Medical Research Charities, a federation of more than thirty non-profit organizations seeking treatment and cures for America’s most debilitating disease. Janice has participated as a volunteer leader with the Foundation Fighting Blindness since 1990, serving on the Northern California Board, as chairperson for Walk for Sight fund-raisers for several years, and this year, as chairperson for the San Francisco Dining in the Dark, which seeks to raise more than half a million dollars for research. Blinded by retinitis pigmentosa since 1982, Janice has lectured, toured schools, and participated in local and national forums on the issues of personal dignity, equal access and full participation for the disabled community.
Bonnie Lewkowicz graduated from CSU, Sonoma with a bachelors degree in Therapeutic Recreation and has worked in various capacities for over 25 years advocating for greater access to outdoor recreation and travel for people with disabilities. She founded and is director of Access Northern California, a non-profit organization specializing in accessible travel and recreation. She has authored an access guide to San Francisco and a book about accessible trails titled, "A Wheelchair Rider's Guide: San Francisco Bay and the Nearby Coast" and is a contributing travel writer for several travel magazines . She conducts disability awareness trainings for the hospitality industry and is nationally recognized as a leader in the emerging field of accessible tourism.
Bonnie co-founded AXIS Dance Company, an internationally acclaimed dance company of dancers with and without disabilities. She tours nationally with the company and teaches creative dance to youth and adults of all abilities.
Jessica Lorenz is Associate Director at the Independent Living Resource Center of San Francisco. Dedicated to the cause of high quality information for people who have low vision or are blind, Lorenz established the LightHouse’s Vision Loss Resource Center. The VLRC now serves, both nationally and locally, as an information and referral beacon for persons experiencing vision loss, their family members and friends, as well as social service providers seeking assistance in their area.
Over the years, Ms. Lorenz has worked as an advocate, organizer and consultant in the disability community. She has brought together hundreds of people for disability–related political action events and she has tackled various issues, from accessible crossing signals to the state budget’s impact on health care for disabled women.
As the President of the California Association of Blind Athletes and a goal ball champion, Ms. Lorenz has an honorary athletic record. In 2008, she was an Olympic torchbearer in San Francisco and later that year, won her second consecutive Paralympic medal with the gold in Beijing.
Larry Paradis is the Executive Director and Co-Director of Litigation for Disability Rights Advocates. Mr. Paradis specializes in class action and other high impact disability rights litigation. He has handled many precedent-setting ADA cases in areas such as employment, housing, transportation, education, insurance, and public accommodations. Mr. Paradis was recently named by California Lawyer Magazine one of California's Lawyers of the Year for his victories in civil rights cases in 2003. In 2004, he was voted, along with his co-counsel, Trial Lawyer of the Year by the San Francisco Trial Lawyers Association. Mr. Paradis has been a Ninth Circuit Judicial Council Lawyer Representative from the U.S. District Court for Northern District of California, member of a Magistrate Judge Selection Panel, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, and court appointed mediator. Mr. Paradis graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School where he was a member of the Civil Rights/Civil Liberties Law Journal. After law school, he worked at Miller, Starr and Regalia for ten years, before leaving to co-found and direct Disability Rights Advocates.
Eugene Alfred Pinover is a partner and Chair of the real estate department of Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP in New York. Mr. Pinover specializes in representing domestic and foreign real estate companies and institutional clients in acquisitions, sales, restructuring and sophisticated financings and development projects throughout the United States. His practice also includes representing public real investment trusts, underwriters and investors in equity offerings and debt securitizations.
Chambers USA (2009) ranks Mr. Pinover in the number 1 tier for leading individuals practicing in the area of Corporate/Finance Real Estate, as well as in the number 1 tier for Land.
Mr. Pinover is a member of the Real Estate Advisory Board of Dartmouth College, and an associate member of the Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate (AFIRE). He is also a member of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers, the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, the American Bar Association, the International Council of Shopping Centers, and the New York Advisory Board of Chicago Title Insurance Company. Additionally, he serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Steep Rock Association (land trust), Trinity School, New Alternatives for Children and Disability Rights Advocates.
Cristina N. Rubke is an associate at Shartsis Friese LLP in San Francisco, where she focuses on business litigation. Ms. Rubke is part of the Bar Association of San Francisco’s delegation to the Conference of Delegates of California Bar Associations. This year, she is the Secretary of the Executive Committee of the delegation. Ms. Rubke is also the Co-Chair of the Bar Association of San Francisco’s Disability Rights Committee. Additionally, Ms. Rubke is a current board member of the Bay Area Association of Disabled Sailors, a 501(c)(3) organization seeking to make all aspects of sailing in the San Francisco Bay Area accessible. Ms. Rubke graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 2001 with a degree in English and received her law degree from Santa Clara University in 2004.
Michael P. Stanley is a legal consultant. Mr. Stanley was a former partner at Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison, LLP, a leading international law firm. He specializes in civil trial practice with principal focus on mass product liability and toxic tort litigation. His experience includes extensive jury trial, law and motion practice, and pretrial discovery. Mr. Stanley received his J.D. from Loyola Law School in 1972.
