Paula D. Pearlman, Esq., Executive Director
Paula D. Pearlman is the Executive Director of the Disability Rights Legal Center, formerly Western Law Center for Disability Rights, a cross-disability rights organization. Ms. Pearlman manages the Cancer Legal Resource Center, Civil Rights Litigation Project, Community Outreach Program, Education Advocacy Project, Inland Empire Program, Options Counseling and Lawyer Referral Service and Pro Bono Services at the DRLC. Prior to her current position at the DRLC, she was the Deputy Director of Advocacy Programs and Director of Litigation.
Ms. Pearlman is also an Adjunct Professor of Law at Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, teaching Disability Rights and Special Education law as well as litigation skills. Ms. Pearlman has extensive experience in class action litigation and legislative advocacy, in the areas of disability rights, sex discrimination and harassment, and immigration law. Ms. Pearlman is a former Supervising Attorney for the California Women's Law Center, where she specialized in sex discrimination and education issues. She has a distinguished career of over 20 years in public interest law. She is a graduate of Southwestern University School of Law, and University of California, Los Angeles.
Ms. Pearlman is a member of the California Commission on Access to Justice, Federal Courts Committee (2007). She is also a newly elected Co-Chair, Lawyer Representatives, Central District, Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference (2008-2009). She just completed three years of service as a member of the California State Bar Standing Committee on the Delivery of Legal Services, and was on the U. S. Access Board, Courthouse Access Advisory Committee.
Ms. Pearlman is the recipient of the 2007 Legal Aid Association of California (LAAC) Attorney Award of Merit Recipient, and a finalist as attorney of the year for Trial Lawyers for Public Justice. In 2006, Ms. Pearlman was named one of the “Top 75 Women Litigators” in California by the Daily Journal.
Anabel Prudencio, Management Assistant
Paula Pearlman Attends 2008 Jacobus tenBroek Disability Law Symposium