Claudia Center, J.D.

Claudia Center, J.D.

Claudia Center is Senior Staff Attorney with the National ACLU Disability Rights Program. [ Until recently, she was with the Legal Aid Society - Employment Law Center in San Francisco since 1995. Ms. Center has litigated cases that secure workplace accommodations and increase protections for workers with disabilities. She played a key role in the passage of an amendment to the California's Fair Employment and Housing Act that broadened protections for persons with disabilities in employment and housing. In 2001, she argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in US Airways, Inc. v. Barnett, a case that clarified in a positive manner the scope of “reasonable accommodations” for disabled employees. In 1997, she started the LIBRA Project, a special initiative to advance the employment rights of persons diagnosed with mental health disabilities. She has served as an adjunct professor teaching disability rights law at Hastings College of the Law and at UC Berkeley School of Law. Prior to coming to the Employment Law Center, Ms. Center was a staff attorney at the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League (NARAL) in Washington, D.C. and a recipient of the Women's Law and Public Policy Fellowship. She obtained her B.A. in Government and African Studies from Wesleyan University in 1987 and her J.D. from Boalt Hall at the University of California in 1992.