Robert D. Dinerstein, JD

American University
Washington College of Law
4801 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC
USA 20016
Email: rdiners@wcl.american.edu

Biographical Sketch: Robert D. Dinerstein is professor of law, director of the clinical program and director of the Disability Rights Law Clinic at American University, Washington College of Law, where he has taught since 1983. Prior to coming to the Washington College of Law, he was an attorney for five years at the Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Special Litigation Section, where he litigated cases concerning conditions in state mental retardation, mental illness, and juvenile institutions. From 1988-1996 (and again since 2008), Professor Dinerstein has directed the law school’s nationally recognized clinical law program, and from 1997-2004 he was associate dean for academic affairs at the law school. For many years, he has taught a disability law seminar at the law school and in Fall 2005 he started the law school’s new Disability Rights Law Clinic, which he directs. The Disability Rights Law Clinic represents clients and families with mental and physical disabilities in employment, special education, housing, and admission/commitment matters, among other areas. Prof. Dinerstein is the author of many publications and has made numerous presentations related to the fields of disability law (especially intellectual disabilities and mental health law), the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act, mental disability and the criminal justice system, issues of consent, choice and guardianship for people with disabilities, international human rights and disability, and other subjects. Among other publications, he is co-editor and co-author, with Profs. Stan Herr and Joan O’Sullivan, of A GUIDE TO CONSENT (AAMR, 1999), author of a chapter on “Guardianship and Its Alternatives,” in ADULTS WITH DOWN SYNDROME (S. Pueschel ed., Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co., 2006); and co-author (with Profs. Ellmann, Gunning, Kruse & Shalleck) of LAWYERS AND CLIENTS: CRITICAL ISSUES IN INTERVIEWING AND COUNSELING (Thomson Reuters 2009), including Ch. 4, “Interviewing and Counseling Atypical Clients” (discussing representation of clients said to have diminished capacity). Professor Dinerstein served on the President’s Committee on Mental Retardation [now the President’s Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities] from 1994-2001, and was a member of the Clinton Transition Team, Civil Rights Cluster, in 1992. He is former president of the American Association on Mental Retardation’s [now the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities’] Legal Process and Advocacy Division. He currently serves on the boards of directors of the Quality Trust for Individuals with Disabilities, Inc. (president), Equal Rights Center (treasurer), Advocates for Justice and Education and Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, Inc., and previously served on the boards of Mental Disability Rights International (1993-2006)(now Disability Rights International), Maryland Disability Law Center, and Legal Counsel for the Elderly. His international work, in disability law and clinical legal education, has taken him to Argentina, Canada, Chile, China, Columbia, Ghana, Peru, Hungary, Israel, Malawi, Poland, Montenegro, Japan, Slovenia, and South Korea, among other places, and he has served as a consultant to WHO in its mental health legislation and human rights initiative within the Mental Health Policy and Service Development agency of the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Prof. Dinerstein is a signatory of the Montreal Declaration on Intellectual Disabilities (October 2004) and the Legal Opinion on Article 12. He is listed in Who’s Who in America. He has an A.B. degree from Cornell University and a J.D. degree from Yale Law School.

Papers:
4015.0 Human rights of People with Disabilities: Completing the Paradigm Shift