Lainey Feingold graduated law school in 1981 and has been a disability rights lawyer since 1992. Between 1981 and 1992 Lainey represented labor unions, and then represented employees in race and gender discrimination suits. From 1992 - 1996 she was Litigation Director at the Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund (DREDF). In 1996 she opened the Law Office of Lainey Feingold.
On this About Page you can read an overview of Lainey’s work. You can also read about Lainey’s Co-Counsel, her speaking engagements, press coverage of her work, and honors and awards. You can also read a Simplified Summary of this Page.
Overview
Lainey Feingold represents persons with disabilities under federal and state law, primarily in matters seeking class-wide relief. Along with co-counsel, she has developed “Structured Negotiations,” an alternative to litigation emphasizing collaboration and focusing on solution. Using this method, she has negotiated more than 35 settlement agreements without filing a single lawsuit with some of the largest institutions in the United States, including American Express, Bank of America, Wal-Mart, and Wells Fargo Bank.
Lainey has long represented the blind community nationally in efforts to obtain Talking ATMs, accessible websites, tactile point of sale devices, accessible (audible) pedestrian signals, and alternative formats including Braille, audio and large print. She has also resolved numerous other cases on behalf of persons with disabilities, including national class actions against Shell and Chevron resulting in ADA implementation at over 5,000 service stations across the country. In 2000, Lainey was selected as a California Lawyer of the Year.
Co-Counsel
Lainey’s principle co-counsel in her work is Linda Dardarian of the Oakland, California civil rights firm Goldstein, Demchak, Baller, Borgen & Dardarian. Linda has played a critical role in developing Structured Negotiations as an advocacy and dispute resolution method and in effectively implementing it in the vast majority of the cases described on this site.
Lainey has also been privileged to work with attorneys who are part of the National Disability Rights Network. Stan Eichner, formerly Executive Director of the Disability Law Center in Boston, Massachusetts, was an invaluable co-counsel in the Structured Negotiations with Fleet Bank, Sovereign Bank, and Citizens Bank. Amy Peterson, of Equip for Equality in Chicago, Illinois, took the laboring oar on the Structured Negotiations with LaSalle Bank and with TCF Bank.
If you are a lawyer with an issue you think might be suitable for Structured Negotiations and are interested in discussing a possible co-counsel arrangement, please contact Lainey.
Speaking Engagements
Lainey is a frequent speaker at disability rights and accessible technology conferences. Read about her 2010 conference presentations. You can also learn about Lainey’s previous speaking engagements. If you are interested in inviting Lainey to speak about Structured Negotiations, accessible web sites, Talking ATMs or other accessible technology, please contact Lainey.
Publications and Press
Over the past several years, Structured Negotiations havs attracted the attention of the legal media. Read the Law.com article about Structured Negotiations. Read the Daily Journal article about Structured Negotiations.
Other media coverage of Structured Negotiations can be found in chronological order in the Structured Negotiations Articles Category on this site.
Press releases about settlement agreements reached as a result of Structured Negotiations can be found in chronological order in the Settlement Agreement Press Releases Category on this site.
On the Categories page, you can review press releases by topic. An alphabetical list of all press releases is also available. These releases and the articles they generated appeared in national and local media across the United States.
Lainey occasionally writes book reviews and cultural commentary for BeyondChron, an on-line political journal of which her husband is the editor. You can find links to Lainey’s Beyond Chron pieces in the BeyondChron Post on this website.
Honors and Awards
Lainey has received the following honors from the blind community and the legal community for her Structured Negotiations work:
- Access Award from the American Foundation for the Blind (2008)
- Special Achievement Award from the American Council of the Blind (2007)
- Special Advocacy Award from the California Council of the Blind (2000)
- California Lawyer of the Year, California Lawyer Magazine