Senior United States District Court Judge Frederic Block for the Eastern District of New York recently ruled in Lawton v. Success Academy Fort Greene, et al. that expert witness fees are reimbursable to prevailing parties in cases brought under Section 504 (“decision”). As a matter of first impression for courts within the Second Circuit, the decision will impact strategical decisions for civil rights lawyers practicing in the area of disability discrimination, both in the Second Circuit and beyond. The attorneys who represented Plaintiffs in this matter will discuss:

• Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act (5 minutes)
• Recoverability of expert witness fees under Section 504 in courts around the country (5 minutes)
• Statutory interpretation arguments considered in the decision (10 minutes)
• Recoverability of expert witness fees under various disability discrimination statutes and related case law (15 minutes)
• Impact of the decision for practitioners seeking to recover expert witness fees in disability discrimination cases, including within the context of education, housing, and employment (15 minutes)
• Potential challenges to the decision (10 minutes)