After a nine day trial in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, Michael Bruno (SF) and Marcie Isom (SF) obtained a complete defense verdict in another high profile disability discrimination case. This time, Gordon & Rees LLP represented longtime client the Regents of the University of California (Boalt Hall School of Law and the University of California, Berkeley).

The plaintiff, a former student at Boalt Hall School of Law, has various mobility and vision impairments. He sued the University and two deans alleging they discriminated against him on the basis of his disability by failing to provide him enlarged print materials in a timely manner as an accommodation for his disability. The case involved untested and complicated interactions between California’s Unruh Act and the ADA.

Michael Bruno and Marcie Isom successfully argued the University’s attempts to accommodate plaintiff, including offering him a host of alternate accommodations and ultimately spending hundreds of hours and over $160,000 for larger materials, were sufficient to satisfy even an “unintentional discrimination” standard. On the defendants' motion for judgment as a matter of law, the court dismissed the individual defendants on the basis of insufficient evidence. The jury deliberated for less than an hour.

The plaintiff appealed and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal affirmed. The decision was delivered in less than a week after oral argument, which is lightning speed for the Circuit. In its ruling, the Ninth Circuit noted: “The clear weight of the evidence at the trial of this case supports the jury’s verdict that the University did not discriminate against [Plaintiff] by excluding him from participating in the University’s programs. To the contrary, the evidence showed that the University bent over backward for [Plaintiff]… . The evidence was overwhelming that the University offered [Plaintiff] reasonable accommodations, tailored to his individual needs, to enable him to participate fully in his law school classes.”