Paul Rein has been litigating access cases on behalf of physically disabled persons for more than 30 years, to our knowledge longer than any other attorney in the United States. He prepared for the turmoil of litigation by winning the middleweight Intercollegiate boxing championship in 1965 and has been working with the Cal Boxing Team for the last 40 years.

Education: Phi Beta Kappa undergraduate degree, University of California at Berkeley, 1965; J.D. Boalt Hall, University of California, Berkeley, 1968. Represented Boalt Hall in 1968 California State Moot Court Championships, team winning the Oral Advocacy competition, second place overall. Admitted to California Bar and all Federal Courts, January 9, 1969. Trial counsel and appellate co-counsel in the three leading California appellate cases upholding use of private lawsuits for public interest injunctive relief to remove architectural barriers and recover damages for physically disabled persons: James Donald v. Sacramento Valley Bank (1989) 209 Cal.App.3d 1183 (3rd District Court of Appeal), James Donald v. Cafe Royale (1990) 218 Cal.App.3d 168, 266 Cal.Rptr. 804 (1st DCA), and Mark Hankins v. El Torito Restaurants, Inc., et al. (1998) 63 Cal.App.4th 510 (1st DCA).

In Mark Hankins v. El Torito Restaurants, supra, we recovered $80,000 damages and $403,000 attorney fees for discrimination against a disabled person who was denied use of an employees’ restroom, and set important California law legal precedent when the published appellate opinion affirmed the trial court victory.

Important precedents were also set in two published opinions by Northern District Chief Judge Thelton Henderson in Bernard Walker and Christina Adams v. Carnival Cruise Lines, et al., (1999) 63 F.Supp.2d 1083 and (2000) 107 F.Supp.2d 1135, extending ADA coverage to the services of travel agents booking accommodations for disabled persons who request “accessible facilities,” and holding that ADA Title III protected persons physically unable to travel to Miami from being required to bring their ADA actions in Florida, despite the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Shute v. Carnival Cruise Lines, Inc. (1991) 499 U.S. 585. Settlement in conjunction with a Florida class action resulted in making accessible all 15 Carnival Cruise Lines ships operated in American waters, and involving the largest cruise line in the world.

In the second Carnival Cruise Lines opinion ((2000) 107 F.Supp.2d 1135, at 1140), the Court encouraged private lawsuits to enforce the ADA and obtain "private attorney general" attorney's fees:

There can be no question that the Americans With Disabilities Act, passed in 1990, established as law the nation’s interest in eradicating the bigotry and barriers faced by individuals with disabilities...The ADA creates the possibility that successful plaintiffs may establish permanent changes in the design and physical configuration of structures to better accommodate the disabled. 42 U.S.C. §12101(a)(5). The benefits of such changes clearly redound not only to the plaintiffs themselves, but to similarly situated disabled persons, and the entire society at large. As a result, plaintiffs or plaintiff classes who bring suit pursuant to the ADA do so in the role of "private attorneys general" who seek to vindicate "a policy of the highest priority."

For example, successful ADA plaintiffs confer a tremendous benefit upon our society at large, in addition to the attainment of redress for their personal individual injuries...[T]he enforcement of civil rights statutes by plaintiffs as private attorneys general is an important part of the underlying policy behind the law. Such a policy ensures an incentive for ‘impecunious’ plaintiffs who can ill afford to litigate their claims against defendants with more resources..."

Patricia Barbosa is one of the most experienced disability rights attorneys in the United States. She spent more than twelve years with the California Department of Justice, Office of the Attorney General, since 1986, where, for the last six years of her tenure, she led enforcement of disability rights with the Civil Rights Enforcement Unit. As a Deputy Attorney General she conducted investigations on behalf of the Attorney General, and acted as attorney for multiple state agencies, including the California State Building Commission, the Division of the State Architect, the State Historic Board, the Department of Fair Employment and Housing, and the Fair Employment and Housing Commission. Ms. Barbosa was one of the Attorney General's representatives on the joint National Attorneys General and Department of Justice's task force for disability rights and housing. She was also the Attorney General's liaison to the California Building Officials Association, for whom she conducted training and consultation regarding the interpretation and enforcement of California building codes and regulations regarding disabled access, and supervised proper building code enforcement by local California building officials.

Ms. Barbosa was also editor of the Attorney General's "Disabled Rights Handbook" and "Women's Rights Handbook," and a frequent speaker to cities, counties and state agencies on the interpretation and enforcement of California and federal civil rights and disability rights laws. In addition to her work as an attorney, she received training from the Department of Justice and the Division of the State Architect's Access Compliance Section on technical aspects of building standards under the ADA (ADAAG) and California's Title 24, and is proficient in conducting inspections for violations of state and federal disabled access regulations for all types of Title II and Title III public facilities. She has conducted hundreds of investigations on behalf of the California Attorney General for violations of both ADA and California building standards for every type of public facility from courthouses, transportation facilities, hospitals, stadiums (including the Rose Bowl in Pasadena), shopping malls and virtually every type of public commercial facility.

Ms. Barbosa has also acted as a consultant for state, county, city, and local agencies, such as local building departments, and county superior courts. During her tenure with the Attorney General's Office her investigation of the enforcement practices of cities and counties brought about significant changes in local enforcement of access building codes, and the implementation of written procedures that benefitted both builders and the disability community by standardizing complaint and enforcement procedures. The enforcement procedures she helped establish have been adopted as the standard enforcement procedures by the California Association of Building Officials.

Ms. Barbosa’s investigation of complaints on behalf of the Attorney General, and the resulting correction of access violations in public facilities, resulted in disabled access to literally hundreds of public buildings throughout California. She has also conducted training seminars throughout the state for the Department of Rehabilitation, for many disability groups, and for local enforcement agencies throughout the state regarding policies and procedures for enforcing access laws and regulations.

After leaving the Attorney General's office Ms. Barbosa has continued her consultation work with local cities and counties on the interpretation and enforcement of state and federal access laws, and is fully qualified as an expert witness on federal and state disability access standards, including ADAAG, ANSI, and Title 24 regulations. In addition to her legal work, she has conducted training seminars for Cal State Long Beach University Business Extension in forensic experts training, and designed a series for teaching design and construction of disabled accessible buildings. She was a featured speaker at the 1998 AIA convention in San Francisco on architect liability under the ADA. Ms. Barbosa is also an adjunct professor of civil rights at Trinity Law School (currently on leave), and continues to provide pro bono consultation to disability groups.

Since joining the Law Offices of Paul Rein in June, 1999, Patricia Barbosa has had responsibility as lead counsel in more than one hundred cases, most of which were successfully settled at mediation or judicially-supervised settlement conferences without the need for an attorney fees motion. She has extensive experience as an attorney for eighteen (18) years and specialized expertise in every facet of interpretation and enforcement of state and federal disability access laws and regulations. Ms. Barbosa is also one of the few attorneys who has also qualified as an expert witness on accessibility issues under the ADA and California law.

Among Ms. Barbosa’s accomplishments as lead counsel was obtaining full access at the Six Flags/Marineworld amusement park in Vallejo. (Barry Atwood v. Six Flags Marineworld, U.S.D.C., No. CIV S-99-1134 LKK/JFM) In Carolyn Martin v. Bombay Company, this national chain agreed to implement policies and procedures that ensure disabled access in all four hundred (400) of its stores, nationwide, as the result of a single (non-class action) lawsuit.

Ms. Barbosa was also lead counsel in McIver v. City of Sacramento, U.S.D.C., No. CIV S-00-2078 WBS, wherein the City of Sacramento and eight individual businesses in the "Old Sacramento" tourist area provided major public access improvements to many previously inaccessible businesses and renovation of public streets and sidewalk areas previously unusable by persons with disabilities. Ms. Barbosa’s fee rates were approved in contested fee litigation orders in the Northern and Central Districts of California.

In Sheron George, et al. v. Bay Area Rapid Transit, U.S.D.C., N.D.Cal., Case No. C00-02206 CW, plaintiffs obtained an order on summary judgment establishing the rights to facilities specifically accessible for visually disabled persons, and that these rights could not be protected simply by making facilities accessible to those persons with mobility disabilities (i.e., wheelchair users). (This case has now been briefed upon defendant’s pending appeal to the Ninth Circuit.)

Julie Ostil is a Boalt Hall honors graduate who was elected President of the Boalt Hall Women’s Association (at a law school where women now constitute more than one-half of the student body). Prior to entering law school, Ms. Ostil attended U.C. Berkeley, graduating with Distinction and receiving her B.A. in English. She has several years experience exclusively representing disabled persons with varying disabilities, including representing deaf women who were victims of domestic violence. Ms. Ostil, proficient in American Sign Language, was formerly staff attorney for the Deaf Woman’s Legal Project at the Law Center for Families in Oakland, and has been with the Rein Law Office since mid-2003, representing persons with mobility, hearing, and visual disabilities.