Anne Raish, J.D.

Anne Raish is a Senior Staff Attorney at the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law.  She spent 15 years as an attorney in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, and for the majority that time, served as Principal Deputy Chief of the Division’s Disability Rights Section. In that role, she led the Section’s work enforcing the integration mandate of the Americans with Disabilities Act and negotiated statewide agreements securing community-based housing and employment services for thousands of individuals. Anne’s work at the Department also focused on combatting discrimination against individuals with mental disabilities in the context of higher education, professional licensing, elementary and secondary schools, and employment. She negotiated several agreements eliminating discriminatory barriers to education and employment for people with mental disabilities. In addition to her ADA enforcement work, Anne led several interagency working groups addressing a range of disability rights issues and worked on guidance and rulemakings implementing disability rights laws.  Prior to joining the Justice Department, Anne was a litigator at a large, international law firm, where she served as co-counsel with the Bazelon Center in a major trial against the State of New York, securing community-based housing opportunities for thousands of unnecessarily institutionalized individuals. Anne has a B.A. from Yale University and a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School.