Murphy continues to fight for disability rights

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Monica Murphy’s work at Disability Rights Wisconsin Inc. has changed the way she looks at the world around her.

“I can’t go anywhere without checking out the accessibility of something,” she said. “I look at the doorways in bathrooms at grocery stores, restaurants, everywhere.”

Murphy was in private practice before she started at Disability Rights as a staff attorney. She didn’t intend to stay very long, she said, but this year, she celebrated her 17th anniversary at the office.

“I thought it would be a nice thing to have on my resume, but I found I do really like the work,” Murphy said
of Disability Rights. “It’s always something a little different.”

Murphy, now managing attorney at the nonprofit organization, is an expert on employment discrimination and special education law for children with disabilities, said Alan Freed Jr., supervising attorney at Disability Rights.

“She’s very skilled, very knowledgeable,” he said. “She’s been a great mentor for me. Her door is always open.”

Murphy started at the organization not long after passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, she said, and found the work fit well with her background in employment discrimination.

She’s had a number of landmark cases, Freed said, such as an ADA case involving Chuck E. Cheese, which remains the largest ADA verdict awarded for a single plaintiff.

Murphy also handled the Crystal Lake Cheese Factory Case before the Wisconsin Supreme Court in which the Court clarified and expanded the reasonable accommodation requirements under the Wisconsin Fair Employment Act.

However, the work can be tiring, Murphy said, so she enjoys mentoring law students (many from Marquette University) as a way to reinvigorate her enthusiasm.

“You can get burned out in this business and feel like you’re waging some of the same battles over and over again,” she said. “So it’s nice to have some enthusiasm and energy with the students.”

Murphy said she remembered having a similar attitude as the students when she started at Disability Rights.

“The man who was my boss at the time raised my consciousness quite a bit about the world of people with disabilities,” she said. “It made me realize some of the difficulties that people with disabilities face, which are often sort of hidden in our society.”

That drive to help those with disabilities continues to fuel her today, she said.

“It’s work that I feel proud of,” Murphy said. “I never feel like I’m compromising my principles.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UPa4JaXdik