First Olinsky Law/Burton Blatt fellow is selected

SYRACUSE — The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) passed in 1990 with the aim of barring discrimination against disabled people in everything from employment to transportation.

Not enough has changed since then, says Stephanie Woodward.

“There are lots of people who still think it’s OK to discriminate,” says Woodward, who was born with spina bifida and uses a wheelchair. “There are lots of bus drivers who still won’t stop for someone with a wheelchair. These are problems that we shouldn’t have after 22 years of this law.”

Woodward is a second-year student at the Syracuse University (SU) College of Law and a research assistant at SU’s Burton Blatt Institute, which works to advance the civic, economic, and social participation of people with disabilities. She is also the first recipient of the Olinsky Law Group/Burton Blatt Institute Fellowship.

The fellowship will give Woodward the chance to learn about disability cases at the Olinsky Group during her third year of law school and continue as a research assistant at the institute. She’ll have the chance to join the law firm at the end of the program.

The fellowship program was formed with a $100,000 gift from Howard Olinsky, an alumnus of SU’s law school and the owner of the Olinsky Law Group, which specializes in disability cases.

Woodward is pursuing a joint degree in law and education. She became interested in law after working with the Center for Disability Rights in Rochester. She hopes to work on cases related to the ADA with her law degree.

Companies must realize that providing access for the disabled is not an optional add-on, but a standard cost of doing business, Woodward says. She hopes to see more enforcement of the law in the future.

Woodward is president of the Disability Law Society at SU College of Law. She is also student representative for the Accessibility and Universal Design Committee for the new College of Law building.

For Olinsky, the fellowships will help train a new generation of disability lawyers. He notes his firm has been growing recently and just hired its 11th attorney. That’s up from six lawyers in early 2011.

The Olinsky Law Group also has more than 30 support staff members.

Woodward will rotate through different practice areas at the firm, Olinsky says. He’s hoping fellows will come in with an idea of
what types of cases they’d like to work on in the future.

“We’re always open to picking up new practices areas in the disability field,” he says.

For someone interested in practicing disability law, it would be tough to find better practical experience than working with a firm like Olinsky’s, says Peter Blanck, Burton Blatt chairman.

The entire firm is focused on different aspects of disability law including Social Security disability, workers’-compensation cases, long-term disability, and ADA cases. At other firms, that area of law might be just a small slice of the overall business.

Woodward, Blanck adds, is part of the first generation of Americans who have grown up only knowing a post-ADA world. They’ll come to own the law and advocate for it strongly, he says.

Woodward notes that the law itself doesn’t do any good if no one follows it and it’s not enforced.

SYRACUSE — The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) passed in 1990 with the aim of barring discrimination against disabled people in everything from employment to transportation.

Not enough has changed since then, says Stephanie Woodward.

“There are lots of people who still think it’s OK to discriminate,” says Woodward, who was born with spina bifida and uses a wheelchair. “There are lots of bus drivers who still won’t stop for someone with a wheelchair. These are problems that we shouldn’t have after 22 years of this law.”

Woodward is a second-year student at the Syracuse University (SU) College of Law and a research assistant at SU’s Burton Blatt Institute, which works to advance the civic, economic, and social participation of people with disabilities. She is also the first recipient of the Olinsky Law Group/Burton Blatt Institute Fellowship.

The fellowship will give Woodward the chance to learn about disability cases at the Olinsky Group during her third year of law school and continue as a research assistant at the institute. She’ll have the chance to join the law firm at the end of the program.

The fellowship program was formed with a $100,000 gift from Howard Olinsky, an alumnus of SU’s law school and the owner of the Olinsky Law Group, which specializes in disability cases.

Woodward is pursuing a joint degree in law and education. She became interested in law after working with the Center for Disability Rights in Rochester. She hopes to work on cases related to the ADA with her law degree.

Companies must realize that providing access for the disabled is not an optional add-on, but a standard cost of doing business, Woodward says. She hopes to see more enforcement of the law in the future.

Woodward is president of the Disability Law Society at SU College of Law. She is also student representative for the Accessibility and Universal Design Committee for the new College of Law building.

For Olinsky, the fellowships will help train a new generation of disability lawyers. He notes his firm has been growing recently and just hired its 11th attorney. That’s up from six lawyers in early 2011.

The Olinsky Law Group also has more than 30 support staff members.

Woodward will rotate through different practice areas at the firm, Olinsky says. He’s hoping fellows will come in with an idea of
what types of cases they’d like to work on in the future.

“We’re always open to picking up new practices areas in the disability field,” he says.

For someone interested in practicing disability law, it would be tough to find better practical experience than working with a firm like Olinsky’s, says Peter Blanck, Burton Blatt chairman.

The entire firm is focused on different aspects of disability law including Social Security disability, workers’-compensation cases, long-term disability, and ADA cases. At other firms, that area of law might be just a small slice of the overall business.

Woodward, Blanck adds, is part of the first generation of Americans who have grown up only knowing a post-ADA world. They’ll come to own the law and advocate for it strongly, he says.

Woodward notes that the law itself doesn’t do any good if no one follows it and it’s not enforced.