Firm: Brown, Goldstein & Levy, LLP
Practice Areas: Civil Rights
Regina Kline joined Brown, Goldstein & Levy in February 2017. Co-leader of Inclusivity, BGL’s Strategic Consulting Group, Gina is nationally known for her litigation and policy work in advancing the rights of people with disabilities to move from sub-minimum wage and segregated employment to competitive integrated employment.. Prior to joining the firm, Gina served as Senior Counsel in the Office of the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), where she provided legal and policy counsel regarding efforts to implement the Americans with Disabilities Act and Olmstead v. L.C.’s mandate for community integration in employment, education, law enforcement/criminal justice, homelessness, and health care. She was co-lead on multi-agency efforts to address federal policy developments and law enforcement in disability employment programs nationwide. She provided counsel and advice and collaborated across the federal government, regarding the ADA, Fair Labor Standards Act, Medicaid Act, the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), and the False Claims Act. She also contributed to significant guidance issued by the Civil Rights Division; provided public testimony on behalf of the Department; and represented the Department on the President’s Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities.. As a Trial Attorney at the Civil Rights Division’s Disability Rights Section, Gina’s responsibilities included conducting investigations, complex civil litigation, settlement negotiations, and monitoring to enforce the rights of individuals with disabilities to receive services in the most integrated setting appropriate. She filed two of the Department’s first cases challenging unnecessary segregation of people with disabilities in state-funded employment programs and reached the nation’s first statewide settlement agreements to transform employment programs to serve people with disabilities in competitive integrated employment. She also helped develop and file the Department’s first challenge to a segregated school system for students with behavioral disabilities. Gina received two prestigious Attorney General’s awards for her work.. After law school, Gina clerked for the Honorable Linda K. Davis of the District of Columbia Superior Court. She researched and drafted opinions related to the family division and the criminal division and supported Judge Davis as the judge presided over the Criminal Mental Health Diversion Court Program.. During law school, Gina was a legal intern at the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, served as a Clinic Legal Intern at the National Health Law Program, worked as a Public Policy Project Law Clerk at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and was a Public Benefits Unit Legal Extern at the Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia. At these positions, Gina assisted the homeless; lobbied members of Congress, drafted legal complaints, amendments, and proposed legislation; and provided free legal assistance to the District of Columbia’s poorest residents.. While attending law school, Gina was also awarded The Order of the Barristers, which honors ten students who excel in trial and appellate advocacy, and the Joseph Bernstein Prize for legal writing. She was the Articles Editor of the Journal of Race, Religion, Gender & Class, chaired the Moot Court Board, was a member and grant recipient of the Maryland Public Interest Law Project, and served as an Academic Achievement Program Teaching Fellow.. When a family member with disabilities was targeted with discriminatory charges of harassment in a Title IX school disciplinary proceeding, Gina got the charges dropped and the student’s academic record cleared. The client’s family wrote, “Gina’s extraordinary professional talent and brilliance was obvious, beginning with our first conversation and all the way through to the exact resolution that we had so fervently hoped for. Working with Gina was much more than glowing results. The way Gina treated my family during this extremely difficult time was absolutely invaluable. She was extraordinarily sensitive, respectful, empathetic, and supportive in every way at a difficult time in our lives. I will never forget the encouraging, motivating, and respectful way that she spoke to us and the enormous impact that her words had on us. Although we were in two different states, that never hindered my access to Gina or her responsiveness.”
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