If William Crowell?s beliefs are a common misconception, it shows the compelling need for State Bar involvement on behalf of disabled attorneys. The typical attorney who practices law takes the most common tasks for granted ? being able to talk to clients over the phone, research cases, walk to the library or court, and hear the judge and opposing counsel while there. Because most law firms are set up so that time must be spent as efficiently as possible, disabled attorneys are often at a tremendous disadvantage their first few years in practice. New equipment may need to be set up, a CRC 989.3 form may need to be approved, and so on; law firms don?t want to deal with this extra work.

Moreover, the billable-hour and efficiency dynamic causes most non-top-10 percent disabled attorneys who graduate from school to enter solo practice or part-time work to learn the law because many firms refuse to hire disabled attorneys, knowing of the additional ?start-up costs.? Indeed, even small law firms expect lawyers to hit the ground running, meaning that a new attorney may need to learn the law on his/her own. This problem may be true for all lawyers, but it hits disabled lawyers hard, forcing many of them into solo practice from Day 1, rather than after a few years of experience (and client interaction).

If we intend the American legal profession to be something other than a gift from affluent or well-connected parents to their children, we need to explore ways to educate all new attorneys effectively, including free MCLE, effective mentoring programs, an ethics opinion mandating communication by e-mail rather than phone if one attorney is hearing-impaired, and law schools that teach the practice of law.

Matthew Mehdi Rafat
Campbell