Access Denied: Avoiding & Defending the Expanding Field of ADA Claims (2025 Edition)

Richard Hunt | Hunt Huey PLLC

Richard Hunt is a Texas Board Certified Civil Trial Lawyer and partner at Hunt Huey PLLC in Dallas, with more than forty years of experience representing businesses and individuals in litigation, arbitration, and mediation. His practice is centered on the disability rights provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Fair Housing Act, providing both defense representation and compliance consulting to a national client base spanning real estate developers, retailers, restaurants, shopping centers, banks, apartment owners, hotels, and governmental entities. Richard is AV Rated by Martindale-Hubbell and is a Thomson Reuters Super Lawyer. He is the author of Accessibility Defense (accessdefense.com), a nationally recognized blog serving as a resource for attorneys, accessibility professionals, and others involved in ADA and FHA litigation. He has served as an adjunct professor of Disability Law at the SMU Dedman School of Law, an adjunct professor of Trial Advocacy at Texas Wesleyan School of Law, and on the Examination Committee for Civil Trial Certification for the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. He holds a B.A. in English and German (1978) and a J.D. (1981), and has been Board Certified in Civil Trial Law since 1990.

• Education & Credentials

Richard holds a Bachelor of Arts in English and German (1978) and a Juris Doctor (1981). He has been Board Certified in Civil Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization since 1990 — the highest trial lawyer credential available in Texas — and served for many years on the Examination Committee for Civil Trial Certification, helping to set the standards for the very credential he holds. He is admitted to practice in the U.S. District Courts for the Eastern, Northern, Southern, and Western Districts of Texas. He is AV Rated by Martindale-Hubbell, the highest rating for both legal ability and ethical standards. His adjunct teaching appointments at SMU Dedman School of Law (Disability Law) and Texas Wesleyan School of Law (Trial Advocacy) reflect sustained academic engagement alongside his active litigation practice.

• Recognition & Leadership

Richard is a Thomson Reuters Super Lawyer, AV Rated by Martindale-Hubbell, and Texas Board Certified in Civil Trial Law since 1990 — a combination of peer-recognition honors reflecting sustained excellence over four decades of practice. He has been interviewed and quoted in Forbes, The Economist, and other national publications on ADA and FHA litigation and compliance, establishing him as a nationally recognized commentator and authority in this space. His Accessibility Defense blog has become a go-to national resource for attorneys and accessibility professionals engaged in ADA and FHA litigation, demonstrating the breadth and reach of his influence beyond the courtroom. His long service on the Texas Board of Legal Specialization’s Civil Trial Certification Examination Committee reflects institutional recognition of his expertise by the state body responsible for certifying the best trial lawyers in Texas.

• Professional Involvement

Richard speaks frequently on ADA and FHA accessibility issues to national and local organizations, including the International Council of Shopping Center Developers, the Society of Exchange Counselors, the National Retail Tenants Association, and the American Bar Association. He provides public webinars and private client training on avoiding and defending ADA and FHA lawsuits and has presented on professional responsibility topics as well. He teaches Disability Law at SMU Dedman School of Law, reinforcing his commitment to educating both practitioners and students on the evolving landscape of accessibility compliance and litigation.

• Experience

Richard Hunt has spent more than forty years at the intersection of civil trial practice and disability rights law — a combination that makes him one of the most experienced and credentialed defense practitioners in ADA and FHA accessibility litigation in the country. His national consulting and defense practice spans the full range of entities subject to ADA and FHA obligations, from shopping centers and restaurants to hotels, apartment complexes, and governmental entities. His Accessibility Defense blog, his national speaking record, his SMU and Texas Wesleyan adjunct appointments, his Board Certification since 1990, and his media presence in Forbes and The Economist collectively define a career of exceptional depth and national influence in a practice area where few practitioners can match his combination of trial experience, academic engagement, and thought leadership.

William Goren | William D. Goren JD LLM LLC

William D. Goren is an attorney and consultant at William D. Goren, J.D., LL.M. LLC in Decatur, Georgia, whose law and consulting practice — centered at understandingtheada.com — has focused exclusively on the Americans with Disabilities Act and related laws since 1990. His practice provides consulting, counseling, representation, and training on compliance with the ADA, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Air Carrier Access Act, the Fair Housing Act, and related disability rights laws. Mr. Goren is himself deaf with a congenital bilateral hearing loss of 70–120+ decibels, giving him a deep personal understanding of what disability means in practice and how the ADA actually operates — perspective he brings to every client engagement and training. He is a frequent presenter, a trained mediator, a FINRA arbitrator (Chairperson eligible), and an arbitrator on the CPR employment panel. He is the author of Understanding the ADA, now in its 4th edition (ABA, 2013), and numerous articles on the rights of persons with disabilities. He holds an A.B. from Vassar College, a J.D. from the University of San Diego School of Law, and an LL.M. in Health Law from DePaul University College of Law — one of the first recipients of that degree in the country.

• Education & Credentials

Mr. Goren holds an A.B. from Vassar College, a Juris Doctor from the University of San Diego School of Law, and an LL.M. in Health Law from DePaul University College of Law — where he was among the first in the entire country to receive that degree. His tri-credential combination of a liberal arts foundation, a law degree, and a health law LL.M. reflects the interdisciplinary depth that informs his ADA consulting and legal practice. He is a trained mediator, a FINRA arbitrator (Chairperson eligible), and an arbitrator on the CPR employment panel — credentials that extend his dispute resolution capabilities well beyond his consulting and training work.

• Recognition & Leadership

Mr. Goren is the author of Understanding the ADA, now in its 4th edition, published by the American Bar Association — the most comprehensive practitioner guide to the ADA and a foundational reference for attorneys, advocates, and compliance professionals. He has been a member of numerous ABA committees, including the Legal Technology Resource Center Board (2017–2023), the Law Practice Section Client Development and Marketing Committee, the Law Practice Section Ethics and Professionalism Committee, and the Law Practice Section DEI Committee. Within the Federal Bar Association, he is a member of the FBA Committee for Advancement in the Legal Profession, the FBA Civil Rights Section and its Governing Board, the FBA Civil Rights Amicus Committee, and since 2022 has served as Chair of the FBA’s Disability Best Practices Working Group — which in its first year produced an accessibility manual for the FBA and its chapters and is currently developing a resource guide for attorneys dealing with persons with disabilities. He is also a member of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Bar Association and the Sports Lawyers Association.

• Professional Involvement

Mr. Goren chairs the FBA’s Disability Best Practices Working Group, serves on the FBA Civil Rights Section Governing Board and its Amicus Committee, and is a member of multiple ABA committees across law practice, ethics, and DEI. He is a frequent presenter at legal and professional events on ADA compliance, disability rights, and related topics. His blog, Understanding the ADA, provides ongoing public education on ADA developments for practitioners, businesses, and individuals. He is a trained mediator and serves as a FINRA arbitrator (Chairperson eligible) and CPR employment arbitrator, reflecting a multi-dimensional professional engagement that spans advocacy, dispute resolution, and education.

• Experience

William Goren has practiced exclusively in the ADA and disability rights space since 1990 — a 35-plus-year career that has made him one of the longest-tenured and most comprehensively credentialed ADA practitioners in the country. His ABA-published Understanding the ADA (4th ed.), his FBA Disability Best Practices Working Group leadership, his blog, his FINRA and CPR arbitrator roles, his LL.M. from DePaul, and his personal experience as a deaf professional who functions entirely in the hearing world through assistive technology together create a practice grounded in both legal and lived expertise that is unique in the disability rights field. His work spans the full spectrum of ADA-related needs — compliance consulting, legal representation, training, mediation, arbitration, and written advocacy — making him one of the most versatile and impactful voices in disability rights law today.

SESION 1 – What Do We Mean by ADA | 2:00pm – 2:15pm

Set the foundation by examining the Americans with Disabilities Act’s scope, purpose, and structure, clarifying how its protections operate across different titles and why Title III stands apart in regulating private sector accessibility obligations.

SESSION 2 – Title III Basics | 2:15pm – 2:30pm

Unpack the core building blocks of Title III, including the definition of disability, public accommodations, commercial facilities, accessibility duties, modification obligations, available remedies, and the implications of the Supreme Court’s Jarkesy decision on enforcement.

SESSION 3 – A Closer Look at “We Don’t Want Your Kind” Discrimination | 2:30pm – 2:45pm

Dive deep into direct and indirect discrimination under Title III, examining how administrative practices, rules, and facially neutral policies can exclude individuals with disabilities and trigger liability for businesses and public accommodations. .

SESSION 4 – A Closer Look at The Requirements for Physical Accessibility | 2:45pm – 3:00pm

Explore the three pillars of physical accessibility obligations: stringent standards for new construction, accessibility requirements during renovations, and the readily achievable barrier removal duty applying to existing facilities under Title III.

Break | 3:00pm – 3:10pm

SESSION 5 – A Closer Look at The Modification/Accommodation Obligation | 3:10pm – 3:25pm

Examine when and how businesses must modify rules, practices, and procedures to accommodate individuals with disabilities, with particular focus on the critical distinction between service animals and emotional support animals under the law.

SESSION 6 – Avoiding Enforcement Actions – An Effective ADA Compliance Strategy Requires a Policy and Education About the Following | 3:25pm – 3:40pm

Learn proactive compliance strategies, including spotting discriminatory administrative practices, preventing physical access deficiencies, remediating existing defects, addressing website accessibility issues, and training staff to properly evaluate and respond to modification requests.

SESSION 7 – Defending the Enforcement Action or Private Suit You Could Not Avoid | 3:40pm – 3:55pm

Develop tailored defense strategies based on plaintiff type, from DOJ investigations and disability rights organizations to individual claimants and serial testers, covering both physical access and website accessibility litigation contexts.

SESSION 8 – What The Future Holds| 3:55pm – 4:10pm

Preview the evolving ADA landscape, including DOJ enforcement priorities under the Trump administration, website accessibility regulatory developments, tester litigation trends, and pending Supreme Court decisions like Kisor, Loper-Bright, and Laufer.