Katherine McFarlane, a leading expert in disability law, civil litigation, and civil rights litigation, joined the law faculty last summer to lead the groundbreaking Disability Law and Policy (DLPP) program, which was founded and is led by Professor Emeritus Arlene Cantor, who retired in June after 35 years of teaching.
McFarlane’s disability law research and advocacy focuses on reasonable accommodations in the workplace and higher education. McFarlane herself is disabled; she has had rheumatoid arthritis since childhood, an autoimmune disease that causes joint deterioration and vision loss. She says her experience with disability is one of the reasons she’s excited to lead the DLPP program.
Prior to joining the faculty as an associate professor last August, McFarlane served as special counsel for disability rights in the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. The appointment was made possible through a grant from the Ford Foundation’s American Disability Rights Program. McFarlane previously served as associate professor at Southern University Law Center and the University of Idaho School of Law. She also served as assistant corporate counsel for the New York City Law Department, where she was lead counsel in federal civil rights litigation, and as an associate in the Los Angeles and New York offices of Quinn, Emanuel, Urquhart & Sullivan. After law school, she served as a law clerk for the state of Arizona and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Katherine MacFarlane (Photo by Marilyn Hessler)
In addition to his research on disability law, McFarlane writes at the intersection of federal civil litigation and civil rights litigation. His articles on the contemporary meaning of 42 U.S. Code Section 1983, the landmark civil rights law enacted as part of the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, have been cited twice by U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves, most recently in Green v. Thomas, a case that garnered national media attention for its decision denying qualified immunity.
New DLPP Initiative
McFarlane credits Cantor’s foundational research in DLPP with helping him better understand disability law and policy here.
“The university has a great understanding of what it takes to support people with disabilities, so I can easily get into the programs I want to do. Things that I might have had to work hard for at other universities are a given at Syracuse, which is very refreshing.”
Through DLPP, McFarlane wants to empower law students to see themselves as disability law scholars and future scholars. She hopes to turn a symposium focused on student scholarship, held for the first time this year, into an annual event and continue to host discussions with cutting-edge disability law scholars and advocates. She plans to highlight new disability law research being conducted by multiple law schools. She also plans to continue to offer disability literacy workshops and trainings to departments and faculty at Syracuse University and across the country, and to involve DLPP students in that effort. She especially wants to maintain the College’s reputation as a destination for law students interested in disability law and law students with disabilities.
“As a university, we want to go beyond compliance and think about what we need to do to continue to attract students and faculty with disabilities — what it takes to remain an institution where people with disabilities are supported and able to succeed,” she says. “That means we need to think about the experiences of people with disabilities from the moment they arrive on campus and think about how to streamline the process of getting reasonable accommodations, for example. We need to ask how much time, money, and health insurance people with disabilities have to spend and how we can reduce those burdens. Our conversations should go well beyond discussions of accessible design to the everyday experiences of people with disabilities.”
Early interest in law
McFarlane lived in Canada and Italy in her youth and always wanted to attend law school. After moving to the United States, she became fascinated and inspired by the U.S. civil rights movement and civil rights law — Congressman John Lewis is one of her heroes — and it wasn’t until later in her career that she specialized in disability law.
“I’ve been disabled for as long as I can remember, but in law school I was too self-conscious to relate to the disability community or focus on disability law,” she says. “Even into my 20s, I kept my medical history private, hiding my constant procedures and chronic pain even from my closest friends. Discovering the disability community and disability law was a game changer, allowing me to finally be myself. I became a disability law major because that’s what I needed to do to protect my rights, but then I realized I loved this area of law and the people it involves, and I haven’t left it since.”
McFarlane says disabled people are under-represented in legal practice and academia. “Not only do we really need disability legal experience, but we absolutely need disabled people to get into this field of law. Getting more disabled people into the legal practice is the low-hanging fruit. But the spaces where disabled people work also need to be accessible. So law schools, courts and law firms need to constantly audit their physical locations and disability-related policies,” McFarlane says.
Using DLPP
DLPP provides a forum that harnesses both aims, says McFarlane. “I also love being able to introduce students with disabilities to this field of law and advocacy and give them the confidence to live as a disabled person. I was a law student myself and I had no confidence. I’m really excited about this generation of law students; they understand what it takes to have access. I’m really interested to see what this generation of young people will do when they get into legal practice or find themselves in a position like mine.”
McFarlane says this specialization will require him to closely monitor lawsuits and Supreme Court decisions to prevent the weakening of disability rights. He points to recent attempts to narrow the Americans with Disabilities Act, which he says could allow companies to not make their facilities accessible. He worries that some of the Supreme Court’s recent decisions could signal a weakening of America’s commitment to disability rights as well.
That’s why the work of DLPP is essential, says McFarlane. “I always recommend DLPP to my students. Disability law is an important, cutting-edge area of law that’s constantly changing. Many of us approach this specialty because we’re passionate about disability rights in our lives. That’s why I’m so excited to be here. It’s great to have people with disabilities at the helm of this program.”