What We Do
Dislaw Consulting provides mediation, disability law representation and consulting, litigation support, and training for individuals, businesses, attorneys, and organizations. Each engagement draws on Matthew’s more than thirty years of experience applying disability law to real-world circumstances.
For people with disabilities, the disability or serious impairment is not incidental; instead, it shapes how they communicate, receive care, access services, and experience harm. For businesses and organizations, understanding these issues is essential to making informed decisions, meeting legal responsibilities, and responding effectively to the people they serve.
Matthew’s work connects legal requirements with practical solutions. His services help clients understand rights and responsibilities, evaluate disputes, improve practices, and address disability-related issues with careful attention to the circumstances involved.
Mediation and Effective Participation
As an impartial mediator, Matthew helps parties participate effectively in the mediation process. His approach emphasizes each party’s opportunity to receive and understand information, communicate concerns, ask questions, evaluate proposals, and make informed decisions.
Effective participation requires attention to the circumstances of the people involved. This includes identifying and addressing communication and accessibility needs and considering adjustments to the process that support meaningful participation.
Matthew facilitates discussion and helps parties explore possible resolutions while respecting their autonomy to decide whether and on what terms to reach an agreement. When serving as a mediator, he does not represent either party. Legal representation and consulting are provided through separate engagements.
Disability Law Representation and Consulting
Matthew represents and advises individuals, businesses, and organizations on disability-related rights, responsibilities, and disputes. His work includes accommodation requests, accessibility, effective communication, compliance questions, and strategies for preventing or resolving conflict.
He also equips people with disabilities and their families with the tools, knowledge, and strategies needed to effectively understand and assert their rights in real-world settings. This includes advising on accommodations, effective communication, accessibility compliance, and disability-informed practices, as well as assisting individuals and families in understanding and securing the services and supports they are entitled to under the law.
For businesses and organizations, he provides practical guidance on responding to accommodation requests, reviewing policies and procedures, identifying barriers, and implementing approaches that are legally sound and operationally effective.
Litigation Support and Case Strategy
In litigation matters, Matthew provides specialized disability law counsel to individuals, businesses, and organizations. He works with clients and their attorneys to evaluate claims and defenses, assess potential liability and damages, and develop practical litigation and resolution strategies. Whether collaborating with existing counsel or helping clients identify experienced trial attorneys, he brings focused disability law knowledge to the legal and operational issues that shape each case.
When a person with a disability is injured or killed, his work includes examining how disability-related issues affect liability, causation, and damages. Too often, disability is minimized or misunderstood, resulting in missed liability theories, incomplete causation analysis, and undervalued damages.
His work alongside trial counsel includes evaluating whether failures to accommodate, communication barriers, or departures from appropriate standards of care contributed to harm, and incorporating that analysis into case strategy.
Training and Organizational Guidance
Matthew provides training for businesses, healthcare providers, housing providers, educational institutions, government entities, attorneys, and other professionals. Programs address disability law, reasonable accommodations, effective communication, accessibility, and the practical application of legal requirements.
Training is tailored to the organization’s responsibilities and everyday decisions, helping participants recognize concerns, respond thoughtfully, and prevent avoidable disputes.
