| Law Center Attorneys |
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Thomas K. Gilhool, Chief Counsel (retired)
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Other Staff Members
Comptroller Development Director Support Staff Jennifer R. Clarke, Executive Director
Ms. Clarke is a graduate of Columbia University School of Law, where she was an
editor of the Columbia Law Review and a Stone Scholar. She is a magna cum laude
graduate of Dartmouth College. Ms. Clarke joined the Law Center in February
2006. From 1991 until January 2006, Ms. Clarke was a partner at Dechert LLP. She
was an associate at Dechert Price & Rhoads (1987-1991) and White & Case
(1983-1987). Ms. Clarke has spent her legal career defending and prosecuting
complex civil cases, with a concentration in antitrust class actions. She was
counsel for a plaintiff class of Michigan children to redress the failure by
state officials to provide health care as required by the Social Security Act.
She also was counsel for the City of Philadelphia in a successful suit
challenging the constitutionality of a state statute that altered the balance of
power between the city and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. She represented
then Philadelphia City Council President John Street in a suit against the
Southeast Pennsylvania Transit Authority and the Transit Workers Union, seeking
to compel the two to settle a long-running and harmful transit strike. Ms.
Clarke is listed in Best Lawyers in America. 2005, 2006; Chambers USA 2005 and
as a Philadelphia Magazine Superlawyer, 2004, 2006 and 2007. She was a founder
and officer of The Caring Center, a not-for-profit child care center serving 200
children in West Philadelphia.
back to top Michael Churchill, Chief Counsel
A graduate of Harvard College and cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School, Mr.
Churchill joined the Law Center in 1976. Prior to that, he clerked for Chief
Judge J.Edward Lumbard in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, then was an
associate and then partner at Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll. Mr. Churchill
also served as Acting General Counsel of the Philadelphia School District in
1984. Among the many landmark cases litigated by Mr. Churchill are the
Philadelphia School District desegregation case, PHRC v. School District of
Philadelphia; Dickerson v. U.S. Steel, a race discrimination case under Title
VII; Freeman v. City of Philadelphia, a police hiring class action; and
McLaughlin v. Pernsley, which established the right to trans-racial adoption in
Pennsylvania. Mr. Churchill is a 1994 recipient of the Lawyers' Committee for
Civil Rights Under Law's Edwin D. Wolf Award. In 1995, Mr. Churchill was
recognized with the Philadelphia Bar Association's Obermeyer Award for service
to education and in 2000 he received the Guardian Civic League's Special
Recognition Award.
back to top Thomas K. Gilhool, Retired, Chief Counsel
A graduate of Lehigh University, Yale University and Yale Law School, Mr.
Gilhool joined the Law Center in 1975 where he concentrates his practice in
disabilities rights and early childhood development, including state-of-the-art
educational practices and children's health care. He worked continually at the
Law Center until 1986 when he left to serve Governor Robert P. Casey as the
first Philadelphian in the history of the Commonwealth to be appointed Secretary
of Education. Mr. Gilhool is a nationally recognized leader in the disabilities
rights movement. He is credited with the rise of community services for people
with developmental disabilities and was a major player in the passage of Section
504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Mr. Gilhool represented the Pennsylvania
Association for Retarded Children in PARC v. Pennsylvania. This case was pivotal
in establishing the Constitutional right of children with disabilities to a
public education and led to the enactment of the Education for All Handicapped
Children Act of 1975, now the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
(IDEA). Mr. Gilhool was lead counsel in Halderman v. Pennhurst, a critical case
that both initiated and fueled the national movement for the
de-institutionalization of persons with disabilities. In addition, Mr. Gilhool
was lead counsel in Scott v. Snider, the Pennsylvania case to enforce Title XIX
Medicaid statutes that tripled the number of eligible children enrolled in the
program from 300,000 to 900,000. In 1991, Mr. Gilhool received the Philadelphia
Bar Association's Obermeyer Award for service to education and in 2002 he was
honored by the American Academy of Pediatrics with its President's Award for
Outstanding Service. Mr. Gilhool spent 2003-04 on a Fulbright scholarship in
Japan to write comparatively about the legal and non-legal strategies used to
advance the rights of persons with disabilities.
back to top Judith A. Gran, Director, Disabilities Rights Project
Ms. Gran is a cum laude graduate of Temple University School of Law where she
was a staff member of the Temple Law Quarterly. She holds an A.B. with honors
from Wellesley College and an A.M. from the University of Chicago in political
science. She was awarded a Fulbright-Hayes fellowship for research in Egypt and
she was a National Defense Title IV and Title VI fellow. Joining the Law Center
in 1984, Ms. Gran has devoted her legal career to representing persons with
disabilities and their organizations in litigation, providing training,
technical assistance and counseling. She has represented thousands of students
with disabilities and their parents in due process hearings and cases arising
under IDEA and Section 504 in federal court around the country, including
individual and class action cases in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware,
Connecticut, Florida, Minnesota, Missouri and Oklahoma. Ms. Gran was lead
counsel in Gaskin v. Commonwealth, the Law Center's groundbreaking class action
against Pennsylvania education officials brought on behalf of a coalition of
eleven state and local organizations, a class of 280,000 special education
students, and twelve named plaintiffs, which ended in an historic settlement in
2005 that created detailed protocols for carrying out the mandates of the IDEA
in Pennsylvania. An authority on the movement of individuals with developmental
disabilities from institutions to community-based residences, Ms. Gran has
represented institutionalized persons in class action suits in Pennsylvania,
California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Tennessee.
back to top Barbara E. Ransom
Ms. Ransom, a graduate of Temple University School of Law, also holds a Masters
of Education in Counseling Psychology, a Bachelors of Science in Computer
Technology and a Bachelors of Science, Education, in Foreign Languages. She has
practiced law at the Law Center since 1991 with a one-year break as Assistant
Chief Counsel at the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission. Prior to attending
law school, Ms. Ransom worked as a teacher and as a college counselor. At the
Law Center, Ms. Ransom focuses on protecting the rights of students with
disabilities. Ms. Ransom was co-counsel in Gaskin. Ms. Ransom successfully
represented plaintiffs who challenged a state statute which contained a zoning
provision that discriminated against persons with disabilities, NDTS v. City of
Reading. For ten years, she has litigated Bowers v. NCAA, challenging the
exclusion of student athletes with disabilities from intercollegiate athletics.
Ms. Ransom also has experience as a project director, leading federal and state
grant projects that address issues faced by persons with disabilities. A
frequently requested speaker, she has presented on individuals with disabilities
in the criminal justice system, inclusive education and the rights secured by
the Americans with Disabilities Act. She was a member of the board of TASH and
works to expand the participation of people of color in national disability
rights advocacy organizations such as TASH, The ARC and the National Down
Syndrome Congress.
back to top James Eiseman, Jr.
After practicing law for more than thirty-five years at Drinker Biddle & Reath,
Mr. Eiseman retired in 2003 and joined the staff of the Law Center where he
currently handles litigation to improve the delivery of health care services to
children and to develop quality community services for the disabled. Mr. Eiseman
graduated from Harvard College with honors. He obtained his law degree from the
University of Pennsylvania Law School where he served as Editor-in-Chief of the
Law Review. Mr. Eiseman was a partner at Drinker for more than twenty-five years
and Of Counsel for four years. While there, Mr. Eiseman handled a wide variety
of litigation, including anti-trust, contract and civil rights cases for motion
picture and theatre operators, contract and environmental cases for
manufacturers and defamation, tenure and employment termination cases for
hospitals and universities. Since the mid-1980s, Mr. Eiseman's principal civic
involvement has been as a board member of the Visiting Nurse Association of
Greater Philadelphia and its affiliate, the Visiting Nurse Society of
Philadelphia, of which he is currently Chairman.
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