Disability Rights Advocates Announces New Co-Director of Litigation

Shawna Parks brings skill and experience to new position of leadership in national disability rights organization

BERKELEY, Calif., April 2, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Disability Rights Advocates (DRA), a leading national non-profit legal center, announced today the appointment of a new Co-Director of Litigation, Shawna Parks.  Ms. Parks comments:  "I am excited to be retuning to an organization where I started my career in disability rights, and where I will now be taking on a leadership role.   DRA is at the forefront of disability rights in many areas, and I am honored to be invited back to lead the organization into the future."

DRA's Executive Director, Larry Paradis, comments:  "We are pleased to have one of the most respected attorneys in the disability rights movement rejoining DRA where she first began her legal work, and where she will now take a directing role in our impact litigation.  Shawna has a proven track record in organizing and managing complex civil rights cases and a stellar reputation in the disability rights legal community.   Shawna will provide leadership now and into the future for our attorneys on cases throughout the country that will shape the disability rights movement."  

Ms. Parks was most recently the Legal Director at the Disability Rights Legal Center in Los Angeles. Ms. Parks has worked extensively on high-impact cases affecting the rights of people with disabilities. These include cases regarding the rights of people with disabilities in the criminal justice system, and the rights of children with disabilities in the juvenile justice system, as well as a wide variety of cases addressing access to government programs and services, such as the court system, educational institutions, and government benefits. Her work in this area has also encompassed cases addressing housing and homelessness for people with disabilities, and other issues directed at the needs of very low income people with disabilities. 

In recognition of her achievements, Ms. Parks was named a Southern California Rising Star by Superlawyers Magazine for 2006-2009, and in 2010 was named one of the Top 100 Women Litigators in California by the Daily Journal. In 2011 California Lawyer magazine named Ms. Parks an attorney of the year in the area of juvenile law for her work in 2010 on a landmark case addressing systemic education reform in Los Angeles' largest juvenile detention camp.

In addition to her litigation responsibilities, from 2007-2012 Ms. Parks was an Adjunct Professor at Loyola Law School where she co-taught Disability Rights and Special Education Law.  Ms. Parks is a 1995 graduate of U.C. Berkeley, and a 1999 graduate of Boalt Hall School of Law at U.C. Berkeley, where she was a Notes and Comments editor for the California Law Review.  Ms. Parks was also a Fulbright Fellow in Budapest, Hungary from 1999 to 2000.

Ms. Parks began her legal career as a legal assistant with Disability Rights Advocates in 1994 and returned as a fellow and then staff attorney from 2000 – 2003.  

About Disability Rights Advocates (DRA)
Disability Rights Advocates (DRA) is a non-profit legal center which, for nearly twenty years, has specialized in high-impact class action litigation on behalf of people with all types of disabilities.  DRA litigates nationally and has offices in Berkeley, California and New York City.  
DRA's national advocacy work includes high-impact class action litigation on behalf of people with all types of disabilities, including mobility, hearing, vision, learning and psychological disabilities. Through negotiation and litigation, DRA has made thousands of facilities throughout the country accessible and has enforced access rights for millions of people with disabilities in many key areas of life, including access to technology, education, employment, transportation and health care.  For more information regarding DRA, visit www.dralegal.org.

PRESS CONTACTS:
Disability Rights Advocates
Alicia Reyes, Communications Coordinator
Telephone: 510-665-8644
Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Disability Rights Advocates