Defending ADA Accommodation Claims in a Record Filing Year: Building the Summary Judgment File

Alexandra “Sasha” Thaler, Partner | Constangy, Brooks, Smith & Prophete, LLP

Alexandra “Sasha” Thaler defends and advises employers in workplace disputes, litigation, and agency proceedings, drawing on nearly two decades of labor and employment practice under the ADA, FMLA, Title VII, the FLSA, and the WARN Act. In July 2026, Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly quoted her on remote work disability accommodation disputes. She is a partner in the Boston office of Constangy, Brooks, Smith & Prophete, LLP, where she co-chairs the firm’s Investigations practice group.

• Education & Credentials

Ms. Thaler earned her J.D., cum laude, from Boston University School of Law in 2006, serving as Editor-in-Chief of the Public Interest Law Journal. She received her B.A., magna cum laude, from Yale University in 2003. She is admitted in California (2006) and Massachusetts (2010), and speaks Russian and Spanish.

• Recognition & Leadership

The Best Lawyers in America® has recognized Ms. Thaler in Litigation – Labor and Employment from 2024 through 2027. Doyle’s Guide of Leading Employment Lawyers listed her as Recommended for Employer Representation in Boston in 2026, and Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly named her a Go-To Employment Lawyer in 2023.

She was named to Lawdragon’s 500 Leading Global Investigations Lawyers in 2026 and has been recognized by Massachusetts Super Lawyers® (2021, 2026), following Rising Star honors in 2016. Since September 2024, she has co-chaired Constangy’s Investigations practice group.

• Professional Involvement

Ms. Thaler has served on the Boston Bar Association Labor & Employment Law Section Steering Committee since 2022. She is a member of the National Association of College and University Attorneys (NACUA) Committee on Legal Resources Library (2024–present), took part in the Leadership Counsel on Legal Diversity Fellows Program in 2023, and is active in the Phillips Exeter Academy Alumni Network.

• Experience

Ms. Thaler represents employers in litigation and before state and federal agencies, and counsels them on policies governing the full employee lifecycle, including discipline, leaves of absence, and separation. She secured a favorable First Circuit ruling upholding a summary judgment win against a former biotech executive who sought $2.1 million in stock, and obtained a favorable resolution of a national origin discrimination claim against a robotics company in Pennsylvania federal court.

She regularly serves as an independent investigator for colleges and universities in Title IX and employment discrimination matters, and has defeated a preliminary injunction motion seeking to enforce
a noncompete against a staffing firm employee. Her clients span education, software, technology, manufacturing, staffing, and hospitality.

She writes and presents frequently on employment developments, including a 2026 Law360 article on performance improvement plans and employment litigation risk, an analysis of the First Circuit’s treatment of PIPs as adverse actions, and webinars on workplace investigations and Massachusetts labor and employment law.

Adria Lynn Silva, Attorney | Sass, Everhart & Silva

Adria Lynn Silva has handled labor and employment matters for more than 25 years, representing employees in discrimination and harassment claims based on disability, age, family status, gender/sex, marital status, national origin, pregnancy, race, religion, and sexual orientation. Her speaking includes presentations on discovery techniques and strategies to overcome summary judgment at the National Employment Lawyers Association Summary Judgment Seminar and on responding to summary judgment for The Florida Bar Labor and Employment Law Section. She practices with Sass, Everhart & Silva in Tampa, Florida, and is bilingual in English and Spanish.

• Education & Credentials

Ms. Silva received her Juris Doctor in 1997 from the University of Miami School of Law, where she was an IOTA Summer Public Interest Fellow and earned a Deans Certificate of Achievement in ADR and International Law. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in 1993 from the University of California at Berkeley, where she received the Christermon Foundation Scholarship and the LULAC Scholarship.

She was admitted to The Florida Bar in 1998. Her federal admissions include the United States Supreme Court (2003), the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeal (1999), the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeal (2022), the Middle and Southern Districts of Florida (1998), the Northern District of Florida (2009), and the Eastern District of Michigan (2020).

• Recognition & Leadership

In November 2025, Ms. Silva was elected to the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers. Lawdragon has included her among its 500 Leading Plaintiff Employment and Civil Rights Lawyers since 2023, and she was named to the 2026 Lawdragon 500 Leading Civil Rights & Plaintiff Employment Lawyers list. Thomson Reuters has recognized her as a Florida Super Lawyers® honoree in Education since 2023.

Her leadership roles include Vice President of Affiliate Relations for the National Employment Lawyers Association (NELA) since 2025, and past President of the Florida Chapter of NELA (2009–2010). She served as 2012–2013 President of the Thomas S. Biggs American Inn of Court and, in that role, was a 2013 Florida Bar Diversity Grant recipient.

• Professional Involvement

Ms. Silva has served on the NELA Board and Executive Board since 2023 and co-chaired NELA’s Ethics and Sanctions Committee in 2025. Within The Florida Bar Labor and Employment Law Section, she serves on the Executive Council and chaired the Voluntary Bar Committee in 2025.

With the Florida Chapter of NELA, she served on the board from 2006 to 2013 and chaired the EEOC Liaison Committee in 2013. She has sat on the board of the Michael R.N. McDonnell (f/k/a Thomas S. Biggs) American Inn of Court since 2007 and was appointed to the board of Florida Legal Services, Inc. for 2014–2016.

• Experience

Ms. Silva’s practice centers on employees facing discrimination, harassment, and retaliation, including disability-based claims. Her summary judgment and pre-trial teaching extends to organizing discovery for success at the 2024 NELA Annual Convention, and she has also presented on remedies in public employee cases and on the corporate Miranda warning at NELA programs. In August 2026, she was a panelist on emerging developments in labor and employment law at the Florida NELA Annual Conference.

She launched her career at Florida Rural Legal Services, Inc. in Immokalee, Florida, representing migrant farmworkers in employment discrimination cases and in claims under the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act (AWPA) and the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). She then ran her own private practice for students and employees in discrimination, retaliation, and harassment cases, and spent two years at another employee-rights firm before joining her current firm.

Beyond employment litigation, she represents students and employees in Title IX claims against high schools, vocational schools, and universities, and has handled Fair Housing Act and public accommodation discrimination matters. She was a chapter author for The Pregnancy Discrimination Act: A Guide for the Plaintiffs Employment Lawyer (BNA Books, 2011) and wrote on employment classification in collegiate athletics for HCBA Lawyer Magazine in 2023.

SESSION 1 – Documenting the Interactive Process While Accommodation Request is Open | Adria Lynn Silva | 2:30pm – 3:30pm

This session covers the ADA employer’s documentation obligations during the live interactive process—from the moment a request is triggered through the final written decision. Attorneys will learn what a defensible contemporaneous file must contain, which documentation failures most often cost employers summary judgment, and how recent circuit and agency decisions have sharpened those standards. Attendees leave with a framework for building the accommodation record in real time, before litigation begins.

BREAK | 3:30pm – 3:40pm

SESSION 2 – Turning the Accommodation File into a Summary Judgment Record | Alexandra “Sasha” Thaler | 3:40pm – 4:40pm

This session teaches defense attorneys how to build an admissible, defensible summary judgment record in ADA accommodation cases. Attendees will learn the framework applicable in failure-to-accommodate claims under US Airways v. Barnett and key circuit variations, which evidentiary categories courts require to survive or defeat summary judgment, and how recent decisions — including Tudor v. Whitehall Central School District and EEOC v. Drivers Management — have changed what evidence employers need. Attendees leave with a concrete checklist of what the file should contain before a summary judgment motion is filed.