Introducing DRA’s New Lawyers

The year is off to a great start and DRA is excited to welcome two new talented Senior Staff Attorneys to our team in the next month — Aaron Zisser and Michelle Caiola.

Please join us in welcoming them to the DRA team!

– Aaron B. Zisser –

Aaron Zisser will work out of DRA’s California office starting January 30th.  Prior to joining DRA, Aaron served for more than five years as a trial attorney in the United States Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division.  Aaron’s work at DOJ, in the Special Litigation and Educational Opportunities Sections, focused largely on the rights of individuals with disabilities in corrections and education and pursuant to the Supreme Court’s 1999 decision in L.C. v. Olmstead.  Aaron coordinated statewide investigations in each of these areas, addressing solitary confinement, alternative education programs, and unnecessary institutionalization.

Aaron has been inspired by the many hundreds of individuals and families he has met in his work and is excited to bring his focus on collaboration and outreach and his experience around the country back to his home state and to the vibrant Bay Area and national disability rights advocacy community.

Prior to his work with DOJ, Aaron served as a law clerk to a federal district judge in Memphis, a fellow/lobbyist on international human rights issues at Human Rights First in Washington, DC, and a staff attorney at the Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia.  During his time in Washington, he co-taught — with his twin brother, an attorney at Public Advocates in San Francisco — a law school course on multi-disciplinary public interest advocacy strategy.

Aaron earned his BA, with distinction, in Comparative Literature at UC Berkeley.  He graduated cum laude from Georgetown law school in 2006.

– Michelle A. Caiola –

Michelle will work out of DRA’s New York office starting on February 16th.  Prior to joining DRA, Michelle served as the Legal Director at the San Francisco based Equal Rights Advocates (ERA) and the Litigation Director at Legal Momentum in New York City, formerly the NOW Legal Defense Fund.  In both positions, she managed an active employment discrimination docket and engaged in advocacy and policy work related to sex discrimination.  One particular area of her focus was expanding the intersection of disability and pregnancy discrimination laws to protect women working in low-wage and non-traditional jobs.

Before entering the arena of non-profit organizations, Ms. Caiola acquired extensive federal class litigation experience as a Senior Trial Attorney for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) for over 10 years, working in the field offices in St. Louis, Minneapolis, Chicago and New York.  In the Chicago office, Ms. Caiola worked on a ground-breaking pattern or practice sexual harassment case, EEOC v. Mitsubishi.  She was also the lead attorney on EEOC v. Morgan Stanley, a class case alleging sex discrimination in pay and promotion that eventually settled for $54 million dollars. Prior to her departure from EEOC, she was litigating a cutting edge pattern or practice case of pregnancy and caregiver discrimination against Bloomberg, L.P.  She was awarded the Chair’s Organizational Award, EEOC’s highest honor, on three occasions.

Ms. Caiola began her legal career at a plaintiff’s side employment firm and also volunteered on behalf of battered women seeking protective orders. Ms. Caiola earned her J.D., with distinction, from the University of Iowa College of Law and graduated cum laude from Kent State University.

Ms. Caiola looks forward to bringing her significant experience in class action discrimination suits to DRA.  Citing the unique and relatively unchartered waters of disability law, she is motivated to develop high-impact cases capable of affording greater access, opportunity and fairness to the lives of persons with disabilities.