Health & Disabilities Unit > Meet the Plaintiffs

1. Meet the Law Firms

2. Meet the Attorneys

3. Meet the Plaintiff Class

4. Plaintiff's Album

Meet the Law Firms

Greater Boston Legal Services:

Greater Boston Legal Services (GBLS) provides free civil (noncriminal) legal assistance to low-income people in Boston and thirty-one additional cities and towns. The help we offer ranges from legal advice to full case representation, depending on client need.

GBLS serves families whose monthly income does not exceed 125% of Federal Poverty Income Guidelines ($22,625 for a family of four). Our staff of 68 attorneys and 27 paralegals is divided into areas of legal expertise to best address the problems faced by people living in poverty. A national leader in poverty law, GBLS also undertakes representation and legal advocacy to address the root causes of poverty.

GBLS represents individuals and families, assisting with individual client needs as well as systemic problems. We also represent community groups and provide community legal education. We give advice and represent people in court, before agencies, and before city councils and the state legislature.

In 2001, GBLS provided critical legal assistance to more than 17,000 low-income people. Of the clients we served, 76% were women and 27% were over the age of 60. Our caseload broke down as follows: 26% of the cases were Housing; 19% were Health & Disability; 16% were Employment and Welfare; 16% were Family; 16% were Immigration; and 7% fell into other categories.

Greater Boston Legal Services (GBLS) traces its roots to 1900 with the founding of the Boston Legal Aid Society. GBLS was formed in 1976 by the union of the Boston Legal Aid Society and the Boston Legal Assistance Project. In 1996 we merged with Cambridge & Somerville Legal Services. Today, GBLS is New England's largest legal services organization.

Dechert LLP:

Working in international teams organized by specific industries and practice areas, Dechert LLP's lawyers provide seamless legal services to clients around the world. Many of Dechert's lawyers are qualified in multiple jurisdictions and are fluent in several languages.

Today, Dechert's 11 U.S. offices include Boston, Charlotte, Harrisburg, Hartford, New York, Newport Beach, Palo Alto, Philadelphia, Princeton, San Francisco, and Washington. In Europe, Dechert has offices in Brussels, Frankfurt, London, Luxembourg, Munich, and Paris.

Across the firm, Dechert's lawyers provide pro bono assistance in a variety of disciplines to individuals, organizations, and associations. As a founding member of the American Bar Association's (ABA) Law Firm Pro Bono Project, Dechert pledges to spend three percent of its billable hours each year on pro bono matters.

Dechert has been recognized for its pro bono efforts. Dechert's work has ranged from representing a mother and her children in a groundbreaking international child abduction case to assisting a special committee of the U.S. House of Representatives in unraveling an international matter involving theft of military secrets. Through its efforts, Dechert's pro bono clients receive superior legal services.

Meet the Attorneys

Daniel S. Manning:

Daniel S. Manning is the Litigation Director at GBLS. He is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin (1968) and Boston University Law School (1973). He has extensive legal services experience that include both representation of individual clients and systemic advocacy through class action litigation, administrative advocacy, and legislative advocacy. Dan has 30 years of legal services experiences, with over 20 years of experience in disability law.

Taramattie Doucette:

Taramattie Doucette a Senior attorney, has over 18 years of legal services experience at GBLS, representing people with disabilities in administrative and federal court appeals. Tara is a graduate of the City University of New York, Queens College (1984) and Northeastern University School of Law (1988). Among other projects, Tara is the author of “Training for Minorities with Disabilities: Bringing Legal Savvy to the Community.”

Todd Kaplan:

Todd Kaplan is a housing senior attorney in the Cambridge and Somerville office of GBLS. He is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, Boston (1992) and Northeastern University School of Law (1996). In 2003, Todd was awarded the ARCH Professional Excellence Award for dedication and leadership in promoting and enriching the development of resident controlled housing in Massachusetts from the Citizens’ Housing and Planning Association.

Anthony L. Bolzan:

Anthony L. Bolzan is a litigation associate at Dechert LLP. His practice consists of commercial, intellectual property, and product liability litigation. Tony is a graduate of the College of the Holy Cross (1992) and Fordham University School of Law (1997). Following law school, he clerked for the Honorable Richard Conway Casey of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Meet the Plaintiff Class

The plaintiff class consists of all individuals with mobility, hearing or visual disabilities, as defined by Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act, who use the MBTA and who are denied equal use of these services because the services are not readily accessible to and useable by individuals with such disabilities.

The class was certified in February 2004, which means that the court recognized 10 individuals with various disabilities and the Boston Center for Independent Living as the representatives and spokespeople for all people with mobility, hearing and vision disabilities who are now, or will in the future, be denied equal use of MBTA subways and buses.

To read more about the named plaintiffs in this suit, please refer to the Amended Complaint, found at:

http://www.gbls.org/health/fulltext.htm

Plainfiff's Album