Happy New Year, world! I am Celia McGuinness, founder of the McGuinness Law Group, PC.  McGuinness Law Group is grounded in our desire to ensure justice for people with disabilities.  Everyone at MLG is either a person with a disability or loves a person with a disability.  Our commitment is born out of our lived experience.

Though we fight in many arenas -- housing, education, employment, access to government and business services --   we represent only people with disabilities. We believe that disability rights are civil rights.  Every day at MLG we recommit to expanding the independence, freedom, and inclusion of the disabled community.

We know that people take different approaches to being “disabled.” Some people embrace the identity, making the disabled community their primary community.  My daughter, Sophia, was proud of her identity as a disabled person and moved mostly in disability circles.  Some people prefer not to identify as disabled at all.  My father, Michael, never thought of himself as disabled.  He was just a guy using a cane who wanted to go wherever he darn well pleased without barriers slowing him down.  We receive you as you wish to be seen, and we will work to remove whatever is in the way of you living your life to the fullest.

My own perspective is that “disability” is not innate.  It is a function of circumstances.  Disability is created when barriers are built into the community by those who haven’t planned, or are unwilling to recognize, the range of abilities that people have.  Every person has strengths and weaknesses, everyone.  Our world “accommodates” some needs (a calculator is always available for anyone whose brain isn’t wired for math, eyeglasses are universal) but ignores other needs. We are here to help dismantle the barriers that the world erects.  

Because our goal is to increase independence, we specialize in lawsuits that create change.  We do seek compensation for our clients, but often monetary compensation is not enough to right the wrong.  Therefore, we work to ensure that the defendant changes policies, fixes barriers, and is required to start doing the right thing now and in the future.  Because our clients are willing to stand up for their own rights, they change the world for others.

Here are some examples. Because of lawsuits brought by the people of MLG,

• A hotel chain is required to allow service dogs without charging a fee or limiting their owners to certain rooms.
• A large property manager is required to keep its residential elevators in good repair, and to temporarily rehouse its disabled tenants whenever the elevator is out of order for more than 24 hours.
• An internationally renowned university is required to provide note-takers for its students with learning disabilities and pay those note-takers a living wage.

Our clients in those cases received compensation for the past harm done to them, assuredly.  But they move forward knowing that because of them, the world is a more accessible place.  

Representing those clients and others like them with integrity and tenacity is our goal and the source of our pride.