News & Commentary written by Claudia Center

Claudia Center was previously a Senior Staff Attorney in the Disability Rights Program of the national ACLU Foundation, where she litigated cases that increase civil rights and civil liberties for persons with disabilities, and was actively involved in legislative, amicus, and appellate work. She was previously the director of the disability rights program at the Legal Aid Society – Employment Law Center (now Legal Aid At Work), where she founded the Workers’ Rights Disability Law Clinic at the Ed Roberts Campus. She played a key role in the passage of comprehensive amendments to the FEHA that succeeded in broadening protections for persons with disabilities in employment and housing. She argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in US Airways, Inc. v. Barnett, a case that confirmed the scope of “reasonable accommodations” for disabled employees. She has served as an adjunct professor teaching disability rights law at Hastings College of the Law and at Berkeley Law. Following law school, Ms. Center was a staff attorney at the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League (now NARAL Pro-Choice America) in Washington, D.C. and a recipient of the Women's Law and Public Policy Fellowship. She attended Berkeley Law (J.D., 1991) and Wesleyan University (B.A., 1987). In 2009, she received the Paul G. Hearne Award for Disability Rights from the ABA Commission on Mental and Physical Disability Law (now the Commission on Disability Rights).