The Internet and ADA Compliance

Richard is certified in Civil Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization and has tried jury and non-jury cases throughout the state of Texas since 1981. He has a national ADA and FHA defense practice that includes defending real estate developers, retailers, restaurants, shopping centers, banks, apartment owners and managers, hotels, single family developers and other enterprises in ADA and FHA litigation.

Richard also frequently consults on ADA and FHA compliance issues and presents webinars and seminars on avoiding and winning ADA and FHA lawsuits. He is an adjunct professor in Disability Law at the SMU Dedman School of Law, and his blog, “Accessibility Defense” serves as a resource nation-wide for hundreds of attorneys, accessibility experts and others involved in ADA and FHA litigation. In addition to his work on ADA and FHA accessibility issues Richard represents clients in disputes covering the entire spectrum of business related litigation.

William Goren is one of the country's foremost authorities on the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. For more than 20 years, he has been advising on ADA compliance as both an attorney and professor—of which during his time as a full-time academic at various institutions in Chicago, he won numerous teaching awards and achieved tenure.

With the goal of making the ADA/Rehabilitation Act and related laws understandable so that employers, governmental entities, businesses, and even individuals understand what it means to comply with the ADA/Rehabilitation Act and related laws, Mr. Goren provides consulting, counseling, representation, and training services to higher education institutions, public and private corporations, non-profit organizations, professional sports teams, government entities, and individuals. He also advises legal firms on a wide range of ADA matters. His approach favors prevention as a safeguard to costly litigation.

A licensed attorney in Georgia, Illinois and Texas, Mr. Goren also brings a deep, personal understanding of what it means to have a disability, equipping him with exceptional insight on how the ADA actually works. He is deaf with a congenital bilateral hearing loss of 65–90 decibels, but functions entirely in the hearing world thanks to hearing aids and lip reading. For reasons unrelated to his deafness, he uses voice dictation technology to access the computer.

Mr. Goren is the author of Understanding the Americans with Disabilities Act, Fourth Edition (published by the American Bar Association, 2013). A prolific writer and renowned researcher, Mr. Goren has penned numerous other articles on the rights of persons with disabilities and publishes a blog — an ABA Top 100 Legal Blawg for 2014 — on current topics related to ADA compliance.

Mr. Goren is founder, founding member, and was the first president of the National Association of Attorneys with Disabilities (NAAD). Mr. Goren is a member of the American Bar Association's General Practice and Solo Technology Committee (Vice Chair) and its Labor and Employment/Civil Rights Committee. He is a member of the Technology Committee of the Business Law Section and the Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Committee of the Labor and Employment Section of the American Bar Association; a member of the Atlanta Bar Association; and a member of the DeKalb County Bar Association. Previously, Mr. Goren has served on the Illinois Standing Committee on Disability Law, the Texas Bar Standing Committee on Disability Issues committee, and was a co-chair of the Civil Rights/Constitutional Law committee of the Chicago Bar Association.

Mr. Goren received his B.A. from Vassar College, his J.D. from the University of San Diego, and his LL.M. in Health Law from DePaul University.