State of the Science Conference on the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

Barry Taylor

Barry Taylor is the Vice President for Civil Rights and Systemic Litigation at Equip for Equality, where has worked since 1996. At Equip for Equality, he has overseen many individual and systemic disability discrimination cases including successful federal ADA suits against the National Board of Medical Examiners, the Chicago Police Department, and the Chicago Transit Authority. He is currently co-counsel in five ADA class actions, including lead counsel in Ligas v. Norwood, a class action on behalf of people with developmental disabilities who are seeking community services. Barry has given numerous presentations on the ADA across the country to people with disabilities, family members, attorneys, employers, businesses, service providers and advocacy organizations.

Barry has served as the Chairperson of the Disability Rights Consortium, Chairperson of the Regional Transit Authority’s ADA Advisory Committee; Chairperson of Season of Concern, Chairperson of the Legal Committee for the National Association of Protection and Advocacy Systems, Chairperson of the Chicago Bar Association’s Legal Aid Committee, Chairperson of the Chicago Bar Association’s Mental Health and Disability Law Committee, and Co-Chairperson of the Chicago Bar Foundation’s Pro Bono Week. He has been an Adjunct Professor at John Marshall Law School, and in 2001, Chicago Lawyer Magazine named him one of “40 Illinois Attorneys Under 40 to Watch.” He has served on Senator Dick Durbin’s Federal Judicial Screening Committee and currently serves on the Governor’s Task Force on the Employment and Economic Opportunity for Persons with Disabilities.

Prior to coming to Equip for Equality, Barry was the AIDS Project Attorney in the Midwest Regional Office of Lambda Legal working to advance the civil rights of people living with HIV/AIDS. His caseload included a successful challenge to discriminatory inquiries by the Chicago Public Schools on teacher applications.

From 1988 - 1993, Barry was a litigation associate at the Chicago law firm of Peterson & Ross. He is a 1988 graduate of the University of Illinois College of Law, where he also received his undergraduate degree in 1985.

David Pettinicchio

I am assistant professor of sociology at the University of Toronto. I am also associate member of the Oxford department of sociology and affiliated faculty in the University of Toronto School of Public Policy and Governance. I am an associate member of Trinity College, University of Toronto. My research interests include social policy, political sociology, law and society and social movements. I have published in Law and Policy, Sociological Inquiry, British Journal of Social Psychology, and Comparative Sociology.

In 2013-2014, I was a postdoctoral fellow in sociology and research fellow at Nuffield College, University of Oxford. I hold a PhD in sociology from the University of Washington (2012) as well as a BA (2003) and MA (2004) in sociology from McGill University.

I am a contributing editor for the blog Mobilizing Ideas created and hosted by the Center for the Study of Social Movements at the University of Notre Dame. I also occasionally write for OpenPop.org as well as Scholars Strategy Network.

I am currently developing an audit study of disability employment discrimination with my colleague, Prof. Michelle Maroto. Read more about it here: "New study to probe disability employment discrimination."

I am interested in the development of political constituencies and their ongoing interaction with political institutions. More specifically, I focus on the ways in which political entrepreneurship and political institutional arrangements shape policy agendas. One of the main objectives of my work is situating the role of grassroots activism and nonprofit advocacy within the political process. In related projects, I extend this framework to examine the economic, social and political impacts of policymaking, enforcement and judicial review on various constituencies.