On November 10, 2008, attorneys from Simpson Thacher's Palo Alto office filed with the Superior Court for the State of California a conditional settlement agreement that greatly expands the rights of elderly adults with mental health disabilities to access state licensed housing.
The settlement is the culmination of nearly three years of litigation. STB partnered with co-counsel at the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley (the "Law Foundation") to bring claims on behalf of the California Association of Mental Health Patients' Rights Advocates ("CAMHPRA") against the California Department of Social Services ("DSS") and various state officials. CAMHPRA charged defendants with disability discrimination, age discrimination, and violations of state and federal due process rights. These claims were based on regulations that, as drafted and applied, denied certain elderly adults with mental health disabilities meaningful access to facilities designed to accommodate such individuals.
During the course of the ensuing litigation associates from the firm, working with the Law Foundation, took nearly a dozen depositions and conducted a statewide fact investigation that revealed extensive problems arising from the regulations. On the eve of trial, the State of California and DSS agreed to a settlement which resulting in a substantial rewrite of the offending regulations, extensive changes to the DSS policy manuals, and DSS's agreement to undertake significant re-training of personnel to ensure the newly amended regulations are implemented consistently across the state. DSS is required under the settlement to make the newly amended regulations effective by no later than August 2009.
The Simpson Thacher team that helped achieve this result included Patrick King, Alexis Coll-Very, Isabelle Young, Thomas Stout, Sara Wilcox, Michael Bogomolny, Christina Hioureas, and paralegal Adam Oles, as well as former associates Sarah Banola, Rebecca Hoberg, and Michele Kemmerling and former paralegals Hershel Lelaind, Paula Montfort, and Steve Burge. A number of summer associates also contributed to the case over three summers. The Law Foundation team included Kyra Kazantzis, James Zahradka, Brenna Silberstein, Dave Carducci, Alison Brunner, Melissa Morris, and investigator Leslie Cook.