On this About page you can read about Lainey Feingold’s background, an overview of Lainey’s work, and her website and Twitter feed. 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.
To receive updates about information posted on this website, follow @LFLegal on Twitter.
Before Opening the Law Office of Lainey Feingold
Lainey Feingold graduated law school in 1981 and has been a disability rights lawyer since 1992. Between 1981 and 1992 Lainey worked for the California Public Employment Relations Board (PERB), represented labor unions, and represented employees in race and gender discrimination suits. From 1992 - 1996 she was Litigation Director at the Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund (DREDF) in Berkeley, California. In October 1996 she opened the Law Office of Lainey Feingold. Read the 15th anniversary post about the Law Office of Lainey Feingold.
Overview of Lainey Feingold’s Law Practice
Lainey represents persons with disabilities under federal and state law, primarily in matters seeking class-wide relief. Her principle work is with the blind and visually impaired community on technology and information access issues.
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 45 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, Major League Baseball, 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.
Lainey is a founding steering committee member of the Disability Rights Bar Association, a national organization of disability rights lawyers.
In 2000, Lainey was selected as a California Lawyer of the Year.
Lainey Feingold’s website and Twitter feed
The Law Office of Lainey Feingold maintains this website and the LFLegal Twitter feed to share news and information about Lainey’s work specifically, and about issues of general interest to the blind community and the digital accessibility community. The website was launched in 2008 and, in addition to providing information, is intended to model how a law firm website can be made accessible for people with disabilities.
In 2008 this website was included in the implementation report issued by the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) as one of only two sites meeting Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 Level AAA. Read the post about LFLegal.com and the WCAG implementation process. The site was also recognized for its accessible design in a 2009 post on AccessSites.org. More information about the site itself is available in the two-year LFLegal anniversary post.
Co-Counsel
Lainey’s principle co-counsel in her work is Linda Dardarian of the Oakland, California civil rights firm Goldstein, Borgen Dardarian and Ho. Linda has played a critical role in developing Structured Negotiations as an advocacy and dispute resolution method and in effectively implementing it in the majority of the cases described on this site. As an expert litigator, Linda also has the lead role in the lawsuit that her firm and the Law Office of Lainey Feingold filed against JetBlue Airways filed on behalf of the blind community in 2010. Read the post about Linda Dardarian’s designation as a “2010 California Super Lawyer”.
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, meetings and classes. If you are interested in inviting her to speak about Structured Negotiations, accessible web sites, Talking ATMs or other accessible information and technology, please use the contact page on this website.
2013
Once again, in 2013 Lainey is presenting at both the Annual International Technology and Persons with Disabilities Conference (CSUN) in San Diego, California, at John Slatin AccessU in Austin, Texas, and as a guest lecturer in the Disability Law Class at Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco. Lainey will be co-presenting at CSUN with Linda Dardarian of the Oakland, California civil rights firm Goldstein, Borgen, Dardarian and Ho.
Read about Lainey Feingold’s Spring 2013 Conference Presentations
2012
Lainey gave two presentations at the 27th Annual International Technology and Persons with Disabilities Conference (CSUN) in 2012 in San Diego, California. She addressed the Plenary Session at AccessU at CSUN, a mini “conference within a conference” focusing on web accessibility and inclusivity. She also presented at the main conference with her colleague Linda Dardarian on the topic of the role of law in making the web more accessible and inclusive.
- Read the post on Lainey’s 2012 CSUN presentations
- Watch the YouTube video clip of the WebAble TV interview of Lainey and Linda at the CSUN 2012 Conference
Also in 2012 Lainey presented at John Slatin AccessU in Austin, Texas in May. Read the post about Lainey’s 2012 AccessU presentation. She was also a guest lecturer, as she has been for many years, in the Disability Law Class at Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco taught by Paul Grossman and Kim Swain.
2011
In January, 2011, Lainey was the keynote speaker at the California Digital Inclusion Celebration in Berkeley California. Read about the Celebration on the Yahoo Accessibility Blog.
Also in 2011 Lainey also spoke at the CSUN Disability and Technology Conference, was the keynote speaker at the Conference on Employment and Visually Impairment at Baruch Computer Center For Visually Impaired People in New York City in April, and was the plenary speaker and a panel presenter at the John Slatin AccessU 2011in Austin, Texas. Read about the CSUN Panel on Accessible Technology Policy.
2010
In 2010, Lainey was an invited panelist at the United States Access Board Public Information Hearing on Accessible Diagnostic Medical Equipment (DME). Lainey spoke on “Discrimination Law, Equipment Barriers, and Legal Settlements.” Read the full agenda of the Access Board DME meeting. She also spoke, as she does often, at the national convention of the American Council of the Blind and the statewide convention of the California Council of the Blind.
More Information about Lainey’s Speaking Engagements
Lainey’s previous speaking engagements included: CLE training for lawyers and staff, California Protection and Advocacy Inc. (2006); Speaker, annual conference of the American Council of the Blind (2000, 2001, 2005, 2008, 2009, 2010); On-line presenter, World Usability Day Accessibility Sessions (2005); Lecturer on ADA public accommodations provisions at Boalt Hall School of Law, Hastings College of the Law and Stanford Law School (1994 - 2003); Panelist, Boalt Hall School of Law Symposium: The Changing Face of Disability Law in the New Millennium (2002); Speaker, National Association of Protection and Advocacy Systems (NAPAS) Annual Conference (2000) and Legal Directors Meeting (2002); Panelist, National Employment Lawyers Association (NELA) disability rights conference (1996 (San Francisco), 1998 (New Orleans); Panelist on disability law, practice and policy: Annual Meeting, Northern California Chapter, National Multiple Sclerosis Society (1999); California Employment Lawyers Association Annual Conference (1997); Speaker, California Association of Consumer Attorneys Annual Convention (1995, 1996); National training for Independent Living, Centers (1994), Annual Conference of the National Association of Blind Lawyers (1994), San Francisco Bar Association conference on Litigating Disability Rights cases (1994).
Other information about Lainey’s presentations can be found in these posts:
- Lainey’s Spring 2011 conference presentations
- Lainey’s 2010 conference presentations about Structured Negotiations
- Speaking engagements in 2009 and Earlier
If you are interested in inviting Lainey to speak about Structured Negotiations, accessible web sites, Talking ATMs or other accessible technology, please use the contact page on this website.
Publications and Press
Structured Negotiations have attracted the attention of the legal media. Read the Law.com article about Structured Negotiations. Read the Daily Journal article about Structured Negotiations.
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 read 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 is frequently quoted in the national media on issues involving digital accessibility. Recent examples include a March, 2013 Wall Street Journal article titled Disabled Sue over Web Shopping and an April, 2013 article in American Medical News.
Lainey occasionally writes book reviews and cultural commentary for BeyondChron, an on-line news journal based in San Francisco. 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