Pamela Hoopes

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Transcript:  “I had been in private practice at a really large corporate firm in New York City. While I was doing it, I thought it was great, but there’s a point of burnout, where I just thought, ‘This is not what I intended to spend my life doing.’ At the time, and I think it’s still true, but especially back in 1989, I thought disability rights law … it’s like the next iteration of civil rights.

If you have a personal interest, that’s a really huge motivator. I had a couple of really close friends … one in particular … in college he experienced the typical early onset of schizophrenia, and that had really a profound impact.

The best thing about my work is making sure that people with disabilities who otherwise wouldn’t have access to high-quality legal services get those services from our office.”