Paula D. Pearlman, Esq., Executive Director
Paula Pearlman is the Executive Director of the Disability Rights Legal Center, formerly Western Law Center for Disability Rights, a cross-disability civil rights organization. The DRLC is comprised of the Cancer Legal Resource Center, Civil Rights Litigation Program, Community Outreach Program, Education Advocacy Program, Inland Empire Program, Options Counseling and Lawyer Referral Service and Pro Bono Services. Prior to her current position at the DRLC, she was the Deputy Director of Advocacy Programs and Director of Litigation.
Ms. Pearlman is an Associate Visiting Professor of Law at Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, teaching Disability Rights and Special Education law as well as litigation skills. She also teaches Special Education Law and Advocacy at Loyola Marymount University, Department of Education. Ms. Pearlman is also a litigator, with extensive experience in class action litigation in the areas of disability rights, sex discrimination and immigration law. Ms. Pearlman is a former Supervising Attorney at the California Women's Law Center, where she specialized in sex discrimination in employment, education, and in girls’ athletics. She has a distinguished career of over 25 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 a board member of the Employment Round Table of Southern California (ERTSC), formerly Southern California Employers Roundtable (SCERT). She is currently a member of the Los Angeles County Bar Association’s Juvenile Courts Task Force Committee. Previously, she was Co-Chair, Lawyer Representatives, Central District, Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference (2008-2009), 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.
In 2009, Ms. Pearlman received a “FEHA 50th Anniversary Civil Rights Award” from the Department of Fair Employment and Housing, State of California. Ms. Pearlman was named as a “Super Lawyer” in 2009 in the area of public interest law and class actions. She 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. As a new lawyer, Ms. Pearlman was the recipient of the Carol King Award, National Immigration Project, National Lawyer’s Guild, for her work on the nationwide class action, Orantes-Hernandez v. Meese (1987).
Anabel Prudencio, Management Assistant
Paula Pearlman Attends 2008 Jacobus tenBroek Disability Law Symposium