William Goren is one of the country’s foremost authorities on the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. For more than 20 years, he has been advising on ADA compliance as both an attorney and professor—of which during his time as a full-time academic at various institutions in Chicago, he won numerous teaching awards and achieved tenure.
With the goal of making the ADA/Rehabilitation Act and related laws understandable so that employers, governmental entities, businesses, and even individuals understand what it means to comply with the ADA/Rehabilitation Act and related laws, Mr. Goren provides consulting, counseling, representation, and training services to higher education institutions, public and private corporations, non-profit organizations, professional sports teams, government entities, and individuals. He also advises legal firms on a wide range of ADA matters. His approach favors prevention as a safeguard to costly litigation.
A licensed attorney in Georgia, Illinois and Texas, Mr. Goren also brings a deep, personal understanding of what it means to have a disability, equipping him with exceptional insight on how the ADA actually works. He is deaf with a congenital bilateral hearing loss of 65–90+ decibels, but functions entirely in the hearing world thanks to hearing aids and lip reading. For reasons unrelated to his deafness, he uses voice dictation technology to access the computer.
Mr. Goren is the author of Understanding the Americans with Disabilities Act, Fourth Edition (published by the American Bar Association, 2013). A prolific writer and renowned researcher, Mr. Goren has penned numerous other articles on the rights of persons with disabilities and publishes a blog on current topics related to ADA compliance.
Mr. Goren is founder, founding member, and the President of the National Association of Attorneys with Disabilities (NAAD). Mr. Goren is also currently a member of the EEO committee of the American Bar Association’s Labor and Employment Law section as well as a member of the American Bar Association’s General Practice and Solo section Pro Bono and Public Service, Labor and Employment/Civil Rights, and Technology committees. Previously, Mr. Goren has served on the Illinois Standing Committee on Disability Law, the Texas Bar Standing Committee on Disability Issues committee, and was a co-chair of the Civil Rights/Constitutional Law committee of the Chicago Bar Association.
Mr. Goren received his B.A. from Vassar College, his J.D. from the University of San Diego, and his LL.M. in Health Law from DePaul University.
Mr. Goren resides in Decatur, Georgia with his wife and daughter. In his spare time, he is a voracious reader and loves sports.