William Goren is one of the country’s foremost authorities on the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Since 1990, he has been advising on ADA compliance as both an attorney and professor—of which during his time as a full-time academic at various institutions in Chicago, he won numerous teaching awards and achieved tenure.

William D. Goren, Esq., of William D. Goren, J.D., LL.M. LLC,  in Decatur, GA, with licenses to practice law in Georgia, Texas, and Illinois, has been dealing with the ADA as an Attorney since 1990. His law and consulting practice, https://www.understandingtheada.com/, as well as his blog, Understanding the ADA,  (an ABA Top 100 for five consecutive years during the last five years of the award, 2014-2018), all focus on understanding the ADA so that the client understands what it means to comply with that law and related laws. In particular, he provides consulting, counseling, representation, and training services involving compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and related laws- such as the Air Carrier Access Act and the Fair Housing Act-, among others. Mr. Goren also brings a deep, personal understanding of what it means to have a disability, equipping him with exceptional insight on how the ADA actually works. He is deaf with a congenital bilateral hearing loss of 70–120+ decibels, but functions entirely in the hearing world thanks to hearing aids, Bluetooth technology, automatic speech recognition, and lip-reading. For reasons independent of his deafness, he also uses voice dictation technology to access his computer. He is also a frequent published author, a frequent presenter, a trained mediator, a FINRA arbitrator (Chairperson eligible), and an arbitrator on the employment arbitration panel for Conflict Prevention and Resolution (CPR).

Mr. Goren is the author of Understanding the Americans with Disabilities Act, Fourth Edition (published by the American Bar Association, 2013). A prolific writer and researcher, Mr. Goren has penned numerous other articles on the rights of persons with disabilities and publishes the Understanding the ADA blog — an ABA Top 100 Legal Blawg five consecutive years — which essentially updates his book in real time and which discusses current topics relating to complying with the ADA and related laws.

With the goal of making the ADA/Rehabilitation Act and related laws understandable so that employers, governmental entities, businesses, and even individuals understand what it means to comply with the ADA/Rehabilitation Act and related laws (related laws include, among others, the Air Carrier Access Act, the Fair Housing Act, and constitutional law), Mr. Goren brings a unique perspective to his work in consulting, counseling, representation, and training to higher education institutions, public and private corporations, non-profit organizations, professional sports teams, government entities, and individuals. His approach favors prevention as a safeguard to costly litigation.

Mr. Goren has always been very involved in bar activities, including but not limited to: A member of various committees of the American Bar Association, including: Legal Technology Resource Center Board (2017-2023); ABA Law Practice Section Client Development and Marketing Committee; ABA Law Practice Section Ethics and Professionalism Committee and the ABA’s Law Practice Section DEI committee. He is also a member of various committees of the Federal Bar Association, including: the Federal Bar Association (FBA) Diversity and Inclusion committee; the FBA’s Civil Rights Section and its Governing Board; FBA’s Civil Rights Amicus committee; and since 2022, the Chair of the FBA’s Disability Best Practices Working Group. In the first year of the Disability Best Practices Working Group, it formulated an accessibility manual for the FBA and its chapters. In the second year of the committee, it will be bringing out an accessibility manual that federal courts can use to help ensure that their courtrooms are accessible for persons with disabilities. He is also a member of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Bar Association and the Dekalb County (GA) Bar Association. Previously, Mr. Goren has served on the Illinois Standing Committee on Disability Law, the Texas Bar Standing Committee on Disability Issues Committee, and was a co-chair of the Civil Rights/Constitutional Law committee of the Chicago Bar Association.

He has an A.B. from Vassar College, a J.D. from University of San Diego School of Law, and was one of the first in the entire country to receive the LL.M. in Health Law, in his case from DePaul University College of Law. Interesting fact: He trained his miniature poodle to be a hearing dog while he practices virtually. Mr. Goren has a college age daughter and resides in Decatur, Georgia with his wife. In his spare time, he is a voracious reader and loves sports.