Eve Hill

Partner

Profile

In February 2017, Eve Hill, one of the nation’s leading disability rights attorneys, joined Brown, Goldstein & Levy, where she continues to pursue her devotion to civil rights. Her wide-ranging experience complements the firm’s dedication to high-impact disability rights cases and its advocacy on behalf of individuals with disabilities and their families. Eve is co-leader of Inclusivity, BGL’s Strategic Consulting Group.

From 2011 to January 2017, Eve served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, where she was responsible for oversight of the Division’s disability rights enforcement, educational civil rights enforcement, Title VI interagency coordination, and the American Indian Working Group. She was part of the negotiating team for the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who are Blind, Visually Impaired or Otherwise Print Disabled; testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to support ratification of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; enforced accessibility requirements for websites and other digital technology; implemented Olmstead community integration requirements in employment and education; and enforced disability rights in education, testing, and health care.

Eve is the former Senior Vice President at the Burton Blatt Institute of Syracuse University, where she was responsible for the Institute’s work on the Americans with Disabilities Act, disability civil rights, and communications issues. Her legal advocacy included representing the National Federation of the Blind with respect to the accessibility of information and communication technology, such as the Amazon Kindle and Adobe Digital Editions. She also worked on matters involving transportation accessibility, procurement preferences for disability-owned businesses, affirmative action for people with disabilities, best practices for inclusive corporate culture, segregated and subminimum wage employment, and the intersection of ADA community integration requirements and fair housing law.

Preceding her employment at the Burton Blatt Institute, Eve was the District of Columbia’s first Director of the Office of Disability Rights, responsible for ensuring compliance with the ADA throughout District government. This position gave Eve an insider’s view on investigations of complaints, informal dispute resolution, litigation consultation, training, and disability policy development.

As the Executive Director of the Disability Rights Legal Center at Loyola Law School, Eve managed all aspects of this non-profit disability rights organization and supervised all major programs, including the Civil Rights Litigation Project, Disability Mediation Center, Cancer Legal Resource Center, Community Outreach Program, and Education Advocacy Project.

Eve’s experience in many facets of organizations and government with respect to disability issues allows her to assist disability advocacy groups in enforcing rights to accessibility and employment and in breaking down other barriers.

Contact Information

410.962.1030 x1311 or 202.742.5969

ehill@browngold.com vCard Print

120 E. Baltimore St., Suite 1700, Baltimore, MD 21202
1717 K Street, NW, Suite 900, Washington, DC 20006

Practice Areas

Appeals; Civil Rights; Class Actions; Disability Consulting; Disability Rights; Employment Law; Housing Discrimination; Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights; Mediation; Public Interest Litigation; School Sexual Misconduct Proceedings; Special Education; Wage and Hour Violations

Education

Stanford Business School Executive Program for Nonprofit Leaders, 2006
Cornell Law School, J.D., cum laude, 1989
Sweet Briar College, B.A., magna cum laude, 1986

Bar Admissions

Maryland
California
District of Columbia
Maine

Representative Cases

National Federation of the Blind v. Boeing Employees’ Credit Union – Obtained an agreement wherein Boeing Employees’ Credit Union will make its website and mobile banking app fully accessible to blind customers.
AngelicCare LLC, et al. v. St. Barnard Parish, et al. – ADA and FHA case challenging a jurisdiction’s discriminatory zoning of group homes for children with mental health disabilities.
Rodde v. Bonta – prevented closure of Rancho Los Amigos Rehabilitation Hospital.
Benavidez v. Shelley – challenged failure to implement electronic voting machines.
Diamond v. Los Angeles Police Department – challenged failure to provide sign language interpreters.
Miles v. County of Los Angeles – required accessibility modifications to Los Angeles County courthouses.
Bancroft v. CIM/H&H Retail – required newly constructed Kodak Theater to be made fully accessible.
Flores v. Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority – challenged capacity constraints in paratransit system.
Handy v. Los Angeles Taxi Cooperative – challenged discrimination by taxi providers against individuals with service dogs.
Thalheimer v. Los Angeles Service Authority for Freeway Emergencies – resulted in making freeway emergency callboxes accessible for people with hearing and mobility disabilities.

Awards

Honored at the 10th Anniversary of the DC Office of Disability Rights, 2017
Award of Excellence, Disability Rights Legal Center and the University of La Verne College of Law, 2017
National Disability Institute Allen Jensen Humanitarian Public Policy Award, 2014
Cornell Law School Public Service Award, 2013
Washington Super Lawyer (one of the top 5% of attorneys in Washington, DC), 2009
Lawdragon top 3,000 plaintiffs’ lawyers in the United States, 2007
Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles, Distinguished Service Award, 2007
Loyola Law School Board of Governors Distinguished Service Award, 2006
Durfee Foundation Stanton Fellowship – to study media and public perceptions of disability rights movement, 2006
Los Angeles Magazine Super Lawyer (one of the top 5% of attorneys in Los Angeles), 2005-2008

Activities

Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, Board Member
Wasserstein Fellow, Harvard Law School, 2013
CCD Rights Task Force, Technology Task Force, Co-chair, 2010-2011.
American Civil Liberties Union, Board Member, 2010-2011.
Global Public Inclusive Infrastructure, Advisory Board Member, 2010-2011.
California State Bar Council on Access and Fairness, Member, 2007.

Media

Eve was interviewed in the July 25, 2018 NRP Ed article “Students Seeking Equal Access To Education May Find Federal Help Harder To Come By.”
Eve was quoted in the May 31, 2018 New York Times article “Disability and Civil Rights Groups Sue DeVos Over Investigation Rollbacks.”
Eve was interviewed in the May 11, 2018 EdWeek Market Brief article “Companies That Overlook the Needs of Students With Disabilities Risk Alienating Customers.”
Eve was quoted in the January 3, 2018 Pacific Standard article “Companies That Exploit Disabled People Have a Friend in Jeff Sessions.”
Eve was quoted in the December 13, 2017 Rewire article “New Report Shows How ‘School Choice’ Puts Students With Disabilities at Risk.”
Eve was quoted in the December 10, 2017 The 74 article “Teachers Urge DeVos Not to Scrap School Discipline Rules, as Civil Rights Commission Holds Hearing on Bias Against Disabled Students of Color.”
Eve was quoted in the October 11, 2017 New York Times article “College Websites Must Accommodate Disabled, Lawsuits Say.”
Eve is quoted in the September 26, 2017 The Atlantic article “When Police Officers Don’t Know About the ADA.”
Eve was interviewed on August 22, 2017 by Liz Weintraub, the host of Tuesdays With Liz: Disability Policy For All.
Eve was quoted in the August 6, 2017, New Orleans Advocate article “St. Bernard Faces Lawsuit Over ‘Deliberately’ Barring of Homes for Disabled Children.”
Eve was quoted in the May 13, 2016, The New York Times article “Confined to Nursing Homes, but Longing (and Ready) for Home,” regarding shifting more Medicaid dollars to home support, training caregivers to administer medications, and paying family members who provide assistance.
Eve was quoted in the October 26, 2016, The New York Times article “Many Schools Failing on Type 1 Diabetes Care,” on the rights of diabetic students.
Eve is quoted in the August 5, 2015, The Washington Post article “U.S. probe into Georgia special ed program could have national impact,” on the use of the ADA for promoting inclusive learning environments for students with disabilities.
Rhode Island Public Radio covered Eve’s June 13, 2013, press conference “DOJ Settles Probe into Segregation of Disabled Student Workers.”

Presentations

Keynote Speaker, “The Legal Landscape on Accessibility,” DC Metro Business Leadership Network’s 6th Annual Accessibility, Accommodations and Assistive Technology (AAAT) Forum and Expo, Falls Church, VA, April 12, 2018.
“Addressing Access for Students with Mental Health Conditions,” Association on Higher Education and Disability webinar, April 5, 2018.
Testimony before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights about the school-to-prison pipeline at the intersection of race and disability, Washington, DC, December 8, 2017.
“Section 508 and the Americans with Disabilities Act,” Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) Accessibility Bootcamp, Washington, DC, December 4, 2017.
Panel Member, “View from the Regulators,” Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) Accessibility Bootcamp, Washington, DC, December 4, 2017.
Keynote Speaker, “Closing the Justice Gap for California’s Immigrant Youth; through the lens of education and immigration,” Southwestern Law School Clinic, October 19, 2017.
Keynote Speaker, Disability Rights Maine Annual Conference, October 6, 2017.
Co-Presenter, National Teleconference to the Vocational Rehabilitation Attorney Network on the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, hosted by the Council of State Administrators of Vocational Rehabilitation, September 21, 2017.
“The Long Game: Why the 1957 Civil Rights Act Still Matters Today,” Panel Discussion, UDC David A. Clarke School of Law and The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, Washington, DC, September 13, 2017.
“Charter Schools & Vouchers Part 2: Promising Practices,” Panel Discussion, the National Council on Disability’s Quarterly Meeting, Washington, DC, August 24, 2017.
“How Trump’s Deregulatory Agenda Hurts People’s Everyday Lives,” Panel Discussion, The Center for American Progress, Washington, DC, July 26, 2017.
“Employment of People with Disabilities: Achieving the Americans with Disabilities Act’s Goal of Economic Self-Sufficiency,” The Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities Taskforces on Rights, Employment and Training and the Collaboration to Promote Self-Determination, and the co-chairs of the Congressional Bipartisan Disabilities Caucus, Washington, DC, July 19, 2017. An attendee’s observation.
Testimony before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee as it convened to consider Judge Neil Gorsuch’s nomination to be an associate justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, Washington, DC, March 23, 2017.
Remarks at the White House Forum on Criminal Justice Reform and People with Disabilities, Washington, DC, July 18, 2016.

Publications

E. Hill, L. Feingold, “Technology Vendor Contracts and Accessibility: What Every Business Lawyer Should Know,” Business Law Today, April 19, 2018.
E. Hill, R. Kline, C. Richards, “Preparing Transition-Age Youth with Disabilities for Work: What School Leaders Need to Know About the New Legal Landscapes,” Institute for Educational Leadership Policy Brief, February 2018.
“Whither the Disability Rights Movement? The Future of Disability Rights Law,” ABA Human Rights Magazine, Vol. 42 No. 4, 2017.
“The ADA, Disability and Identity,” Journal of the American Medical Assn., 2015.
“So You’ve Hired a Lawyer with a Disability…Now What? Disability and Diversity,” Journal of the Institute for Inclusion in the Legal Profession, 2011.
“Legal and Policy Implications of Cloud Computing,” proceedings of the Human Computer Interaction International Conference, 2011.
Contributor, Litigating Employment Discrimination Cases, Friedman, 2010, 2011.
“Future of Disability Law and Advocacy and ‘The Right to Live in the World,’” Second Jacobus tenBroek Disability Law Symposium, Texas Journal on Civil Liberties and Civil Rights, Fall 2009 (coauthor).
“Future of Disability Rights: Part Three—Statutes of Limitations in Americans with Disabilities Act Design and Construction Cases,” Syracuse Law Review (coauthor).
“Cases & Materials on Disability Civil Rights Law and Policy,” Thomson-West Group, 2005, 2009 (coauthor).
“What Society Needs to do to Ensure Seniors with Disabilities Age Well,” AARP Diversity & Aging in the 21st Century: Let the Dialog Begin, 2009 (coauthor).
“Disability Civil Rights Law and Policy,” Thomson-West Group, January 2004 (coauthor).