Director and Professor Natalie M. Chin leads the former Disability and Aging Justice Clinic’s next evolution
Under the leadership of Associate Professor Natalie M. Chin, the newly renamed Disability Rights and Social Justice (DRSJ) Clinic at CUNY School of Law is pioneering an approach that promises to reshape how future lawyers understand and advocate for disability rights and justice.
“I am not just teaching disability law,” Professor Chin explains, leaning into her desk. “Clinic students explore how to confront ableism and intersecting forms of oppression in their advocacy. My goal is to prepare future lawyers who can navigate these complexities and drive meaningful change for clients and across systems.”
This new vision for the DRSJ Clinic is built on the foundation created in its first iteration, which went on to become a cornerstone of CUNY’s renowned clinical education program. Professor Joe Rosenberg started a wills clinic with David Kadane in 1988 that would become the Elder Law Clinic with a docket that revolved around adult guardianship cases with the primary goal of keeping the person in the community or advocating for their discharge from an institution back into the community. Elder Law Clinic students are also engaged with community-based partners and drafted wills, health care proxies, and other life-planning documents. Over the years, the Elder Law Clinic expanded its practice to address the needs of undocumented parents and utilized technology to create access to justice tools related to guardianship.
In 2019, Professor Chin joined the CUNY law school faculty to direct the Elder Law Clinic with Professor Rosenberg. To better reflect the intersection of disability and aging rights, the Clinic’s name was changed to the Disability and Aging Justice Clinic. Under Professor Rosenberg and Professor Chin’s leadership, the Clinic’s evolving docket included guardianship cases, advocating for the rights of aging and disabled incarcerated persons, representing a client who required accommodations to complete the U.S. citizenship process of adjusting her immigration status, and filing appeals and amicus briefs on novel issues that impacted this community. The Clinic also engaged in projects focused on sexual rights and disability, alternatives to guardianship, and collaborated with the New York County Surrogate’s Court to develop an interactive do-it-yourself tool for estate planning guidance. In 2024, after 35 years, Professor Rosenberg retired from clinical teaching, leaving a legacy that Professor Chin continues to build upon and evolve.
When asked what brought her to the Law School five years ago, Professor Chin grows animated. “I came to CUNY Law because I really loved that taking a clinic is required prior to graduation. It showed CUNY’s commitment to social justice and its emphasis on the importance of experiential learning.” Professor Chin highlighted CUNY’s different clinic model. She explained, “Unlike most law school clinics, my clinic is offered for 10 and 12 credits. That’s a lot of credits, which means that my clinic is the students’ primary focus for the semester.” Professor Chin expressed that this focus from the students of both time and commitment allowed her “to think more creatively about what the weekly seminar and clinic docket and policy work could look like.” She said, “it enabled me to examine the depth, intensity, and range of the work I offered to the students. I wanted to continue Professor Rosenberg’s legacy and build a clinic that lays the groundwork for students to have a transformative experience. I want students to feel confident that after graduation they can take the skills and knowledge they learned in the Clinic and apply it to whatever legal avenue they explore after graduation.”
What’s in a Name?
With the start of the Fall 2024 semester, Professor Chin decided to change the name of the Clinic to more strongly reflect its core mission. In changing the name to the Disability Rights and Social Justice Clinic, Professor Chin explained, “Disability rights are often seen as a siloed issue. But that is far from true. As Audre Lorde said, ‘There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives.’ Disability is a part of every justice movement — Black Lives Matter, Disability Justice, Reproductive Justice, Food Justice, Immigrant Rights, LGBTQ+ Rights, Gender Justice, Environmental Justice, and beyond. Disability rights is a civil rights and social justice issue, and I wanted the name of the Clinic to reflect this reality.”
Central to the Clinic’s approach is an anti-ableist framework that encourages students to critically examine the historical and systemic factors that have shaped not just disability law and policy, but the entire legal system. In the Clinic’s first month, the class examines ableism — its history and its foundational role in issues such as slavery, eugenics, and IQ testing. Students examine how concepts like “normalcy,” “productivity,” and “intelligence” have been weaponized in law and policy. What Professor Chin aims to establish from her very first clinic seminar classes is the profound impact ableism has on how laws are written, judges decide cases, and policy is crafted.
“I want students to understand that taking the DRSJ Clinic engages with various aspects of law because disability touches every issue. We also discuss how disability is manufactured through racism, gender, and class inequality. We discuss the racialization of disability, the pathologizing of race, and delve into the initial white-centric emphasis on disability rights and the shift toward disability justice.”
From Theory to Practice
The Clinic’s innovative approach extends far beyond the classroom, as seen in a wide range of cases and projects that highlight the real-world application of student learning.
A recent victory exemplifies the Clinic’s impact. Students successfully argued an Article 78 appeal, challenging the denial of eligibility for services to a young woman by the Office for People with Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD). The case highlights the critical importance of OPWDD services, which Professor Chin describes as “the only game in town” for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities seeking community-based support. “If you’re 18 or 19 and you apply for OPWDD services and you don’t get it, your life is going to be very different,” she explains. “You won’t have access to any of the resources OPWDD provides that are intended to help you live and thrive in the community. This includes education, employment, housing, and daily living supports and services.”
The Article 78 appeal involved a young woman with a dual diagnosis of mental health conditions and intellectual disability. Professor Chin notes that OPWDD “has a long and problematic history of denying access to its services for disabled people who are dually diagnosed.” The Clinic took on this challenging case, with students meticulously reviewing medical records and crafting legal arguments. “The students took on this appeal with fervor. They went through our client’s extensive medical records. We made an argument that the decision by the administrative law judge was arbitrary and capricious and lacked substantial evidence,” Professor Chin recounts.
The Clinic’s efforts paid off with a groundbreaking win. The intermediate appellate court ruled in favor of the young woman, instructing OPWDD to reconsider the case. “The court was like, ‘Yeah, OPWDD’s determination against our client was ‘irrational as a matter of law.’” The court annulled the decision and required the agency to take the case back and make a de novo determination based on the whole record, Professor Chin explains, “this victory is particularly significant given the rarity of successful appeals in such cases.” The Clinic’s work not only secured a positive outcome for their client but also established a precedent that could benefit many others facing similar challenges in accessing crucial support services.
Other recent projects and cases include developing a comprehensive report on sexual rights for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, which informed statewide policy revisions in New York and challenging discriminatory practices in New York’s prison system, particularly focusing on the intersection of disability and aging.
Expanding Impact and Partnerships
As with many of the Law School’s other clinics, building a docket for the Disability Rights and Social Justice Clinic is sustained, intentional, and focused work. In the year ahead, Professor Chin will continue building partnerships that expand the Clinic’s reach. Collaborations with organizations like the Mental Hygiene Legal Service, New York City Council, Self-Advocacy Association of New York State, and HEARD – a cross-disability abolitionist organization that supports deaf/disabled incarcerated people through a range of advocacy efforts — are already underway.
One exciting new initiative is a collaboration with the New York City Council and other area law schools to run estate planning clinics for NYC seniors. The DRSJ Clinic will participate in this crucial project on October 8 in Queens and October 9 in Brooklyn, helping to advocate for vulnerable seniors in the face of predatory practices.
“This project is a perfect example of how disability rights intersects with other areas of law,” Professor Chin notes. “It allows our students to engage in elder law, health care rights, and issues related to access to justice.”
Professor Chin also plans to get Clinic students involved in educating the disability community on the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), a mechanism that New York State voters can use if they’ve experienced issues related to accessibility or discriminatory treatment that is covered under HAVA when trying to vote. Individual voters can file a HAVA complaint with the New York State Board of Elections. This semester, students will learn about HAVA, create a ‘know your rights’ one-pager on HAVA, and distribute it among the disability community. This advocacy effort will also include educating the disabled community about the right of persons under guardianship to vote. Professor Chin explains, “Having a guardian does not automatically result in the person under guardianship losing their right to vote. Yet, there is misinformation that guardianship strips persons of this fundamental right.” The goal, says Professor Chin, is to demonstrate to students the many ways to advocate. “There are many forms of advocacy and public education is an essential aspect of making change. I want my clinic students to feel the impact they can have and that they’re also in the trenches because there’s so much going on politically.”
Professor Chin’s Vision and Background
Professor Chin’s vision for the Clinic is informed by her rich background in civil rights advocacy and her experience creating and developing the Disability and Civil Rights Clinic at Brooklyn Law School, the first law school clinic that advocates for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities in the country.
Long drawn to issues of social and racial justice, Professor Chin’s teaching is influenced by many years as a dedicated public interest attorney and a career as a journalist focused on social welfare issues. “Prior to becoming a law professor, I was a journalist in California and South Africa. This experience taught me the importance of narrative storytelling as a means to effect change and move minds. I became a better listener and learned the importance of observation, curiosity, and empathy. When I decided to go to law school, I realized that these skills were equally important in legal advocacy. Before teaching, I was a lawyer and had the opportunity to litigate cases in state, federal, and housing court. I represented the aging population, persons with psychiatric conditions, and engaged in impact litigation and community education efforts for the LGBTQ+ community. Clinical teaching is an amazing marriage of my passion of legal advocacy and teaching the next generation of social justice attorneys.”
Professor Chin’s scholarship explores intersections of disability and civil rights law in areas that impact the most fundamental aspects of one’s life, including sexuality, sexual rights, and reproductive justice. A recent initiative with Project SHINE, a multidisciplinary network of intellectual and developmental disability experts, self-advocates, and sexual and reproductive health professionals, created a first-of-its-kind resource. Launched this past summer, the brand-new sex education toolkit includes an interactive online game designed to educate young people with intellectual and developmental disabilities about sexual and reproductive health, sexuality, bodily autonomy, and consent. The project also includes a call to action for sexual and reproductive health, written by Professor Chin in collaboration with Project Shine community partners.
Her forthcoming article “The Structural Desexualization of Disability” in the Columbia Law Review*, due out this fall, explores how minimizing and erasing sexuality in the lives of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities perpetuates and maintains a cycle of sexual violence that this community disproportionately experiences.
“One important issue that I’ve been addressing is the desexualization of disability. This involves confronting policies and societal norms that strip sexual agency, autonomy, and self-determination from disabled people. I’m passionate about furthering this work because it’s an issue that intersects with fundamental rights like family, marriage, cohabitation, intimate relationships, and sexual pleasure.”
A New Generation of Advocates
“This work is about more than winning cases,” Professor Chin concludes. “It’s about reshaping society’s understanding of disability and justice. That’s the change we’re after, one student, one case, one community at a time.”
*Editor’s Note: This article was updated on November 1, 2024 to include a link to Professor Chin’s published article in the Columbia Law Review.