ADA Mental-Health Accommodation After Return-to-Office: Litigating and Defending Failure-to-Accommodate Claims

Melissa M. Pesce, Shareholder | Ogletree Deakins

Melissa M. Pesce is a shareholder in Ogletree Deakins’ St. Louis office who focuses on employment law and litigation. She advises and represents employers on discrimination, harassment, retaliation, wage and hour, leaves of absence, workplace accommodations, trade secrets, drug testing, and multistate employment compliance. She has more than 20 years of litigation experience in federal and state courts.

• Education & Credentials

Melissa earned her J.D., cum laude, from Southern Illinois University School of Law in 1995 and her B.A. from Southern Illinois University in 1992. She is admitted in Missouri and Illinois, as well as the U.S. District Courts in Missouri and Illinois and the Seventh and Eighth Circuits.

• Recognition & Leadership

Melissa has been recognized by Best Lawyers for Employment Law – Management from 2024–2026 and Litigation – Labor and Employment in 2026. She was also named 2026 St. Louis Employment Law – Management Lawyer of the Year by Best Lawyers.

• Professional Involvement

Melissa is a frequent speaker on employment law and workplace issues, presenting to SHRM, legal associations, and other professional organizations. Her recent programs have addressed EEOC and DEI developments, paid leave, remote work, workplace investigations, accommodations, multistate compliance, and employment arbitration.

• Experience

Melissa has served as lead or first-chair trial counsel in jury and bench trials involving discrimination, harassment, retaliation, trade secrets, and breach of contract, as well as lead counsel in arbitrations and mediations. She also conducts workplace investigations and advises employers on wage and hour compliance, leave and accommodation policies, drug testing, restrictive covenants, trade secrets, and multistate employment policies.

Kellee Boulais Kruse, Principal | The Employment Law Group, P.C

Kellee Boulais Kruse is a principal at The Employment Law Group, P.C. in Washington, D.C., where she represents private-sector and federal employees in civil rights matters, with a particular focus on discrimination, retaliation, and accommodation disputes. Earlier employment inside a federal agency — where she encountered civil rights violations firsthand — led her to the law and gives her an insider perspective on the federal-employee experience.

• Education & Credentials

Ms. Kruse earned her J.D. from The George Washington University Law School and her B.A. in Management Information Systems from North Dakota State University. She is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia, Virginia, and various federal courts.

• Recognition & Leadership

Ms. Kruse is recognized by The Best Lawyers in America (2023–present) in Employment Law – Individuals and Litigation – Labor and Employment, and by Lawdragon (2020–present) on its list of the top 500 plaintiff-side employment lawyers in the country. Super Lawyers named her a Rising Star in 2019 — an honor extended to only 2.5% of practicing lawyers in each state — and returned her to its rankings beginning with the 2025 list. At her firm, she mentors law clerks and has guided associates on the path to becoming principals.

• Professional Involvement

Ms. Kruse serves as co-chair of the Employment Law Forum of the Women’s Bar Association of the District of Columbia, where she mentors rising women attorneys and helps organize panels on topics such as equal pay and post-pandemic return-to-office issues. She is a member of the D.C. Bar, the National Employment Lawyers Association, and the Metropolitan Washington Employment Lawyers Association, where she spoke on a conference panel addressing newly emerging COVID-related cases.

• Experience

Ms. Kruse has been with The Employment Law Group since 2006, when she joined as a law clerk during law school. She litigates claims under Title VII, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the Energy Reorganization Act, and the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act, and represents clients before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Merit Systems Protection Board, and the Office of Administrative Law Judges at the U.S. Department of Labor. Her work in developing areas of employment law — family responsibilities discrimination, nuclear whistleblower cases, and one of the first district-court cases involving COVID-related discrimination — has produced decisions now cited by other litigants, including an appellate ruling establishing that federal whistleblowers have the right to a hearing if the MSPB denies them one.

SESSION 1 – Best Practices for Handling ADA Accommodation Requests for Mental-Health Conditions Arising from Return-to-Office Mandates: Building a Strong Evidentiary Record of Essential Functions and Undue Hardship as Part of the Interactive Process | 12:00pm – 1:00pm

This session will cover best practices for handling the interactive process and undue hardship analysis in ADA mental health accommodation cases arising from return-to-office mandates. Attendees will learn how to establish essential job functions and how the Second Circuit’s Tudor v. Whitehall decision shifts the analysis beyond essential-function performance. The session will also focus on best practices for handling requests for remote work in this post-pandemic era. Attorneys will acquire solid strategies for defending claims of discrimination and retaliation and developing a record of evidence that can be used in support of summary judgment. Attorneys will leave with concrete record-building checklists for litigation, deposition strategy, and interactive-process documentation in mental-health accommodation disputes.

BREAK | 1:00pm – 1:10pm

SESSION 2 – ADA Mental-Health Accommodation After Return-to-Work Mandates: Litigating and Defending Failure-to-Accommodate Claims | 1:10pm – 2:10pm

This session equips attorneys with the current doctrinal framework and litigation strategy for ADA mental-health failure-to-accommodate claims arising from return-to-office mandates, covering prima facie elements and circuit splits, recent circuit and district court decisions, and the evidentiary impact of pandemic-era remote-work history. Attorneys will learn how to plead and defend claims involving delay in the interactive process, the scope of the ‘qualified individual’ standard after Tudor v. Whitehall, and the distinction between prospective accommodation requests and impermissible ‘do-over’ demands. Attendees will leave with a practical understanding of mental-health accommodation disputes.