From Awareness to Action: Confronting Physical Disability Bias in the Legal Prof

AJ Link (he/him) is openly autistic. He received his JD from The George Washington University Law School and his LL.M in Space Law at the University of Mississippi School of Law. He was the inaugural director of The Center for Air and Space Law Task Force on Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity in Aerospace and is an adjunct professor of space law at Howard University School of Law.

AJ serves as a research director for the Jus Ad Astra project, the Accessibility Team Lead for AstroAccess, the Space Law and Policy Chair for Black in Astro and is a cofounder of the Palestine Space Institute.

He is the founding president of the National Disabled Law Students Association and the National Disabled Legal Professionals Association. AJ also works as a policy analyst for the Autistic Self Advocacy Network and was previously a fellow at For All Moonkind’s Ethics Institute.

AJ is the chairperson of the board of the JustSpace Alliance as well as the chair of The Potter’s House DC, a nonprofit bookstore. He is also a commissioner on the American Bar Association Commission on Disability Rights. He is the 2020 recipient of the Michael Dillon Cooley Memorial Award, a 2020 inductee of the Susan M. Daniels Disability Mentoring Hall of Fame, and the first ever winner of the Above Space Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award.

AJ continues to be actively involved in local, national, and international social justice movements and serves on several advisory boards and steering committees that focus on building a better future.

David Cross is a partner in Goodwin’s Antitrust and Competition practice and a member of the firm’s Complex Litigation & Dispute Resolution practice. He is a leading, first-chair trial lawyer with extensive experience representing both plaintiffs and defendants in antitrust and complex business litigation, including intellectual property and general commercial matters. Forbes recognized David as one of America’s Top 200 Lawyers — across all practice areas — in its 2024 inaugural ranking, and he was one of only four finalists for The American Lawyer’s 2023 Attorney of the Year Award. Washingtonian named David a Top Lawyer in antitrust in 2024. David has represented some of the world’s leading companies, including CSX Transportation, DuPont, Etsy, John Deere, Nexstar, Oracle, Sumitomo Electric, Teradata, and Uber.

David brings a winning combination of creativity and passionate advocacy to every matter, moving cases to successful conclusions expeditiously and cost-effectively. He represents clients in all aspects of antitrust and competition-related matters, including government investigations relating to monopolization or alleged price fixing, and nationwide bet-the-company class actions seeking tens of billions of dollars in damages. Clients frequently turn to David for counseling regarding compliance with domestic and international competition laws, including issues involving multisided markets, network effects, pricing algorithms and other AI tools, digital markets, and online marketplaces. In addition to a robust defense practice, David has established a destination practice for businesses confronting anticompetitive attacks from entrenched, dominant competitors.

David represents clients across a broad range of industries, including software, transportation, electronics, genetic testing, data analytics and storage, automotive parts, online services, property management, synthetic fiber, computer products, home appliances, and other consumer products. David’s zealous pursuit of his clients’ interests includes recovering millions of dollars in fees and costs from opposing parties for litigation misconduct.

David also maintains a strong pro bono practice focused on civil rights work. Notably, David obtained a 2019 injunction that shuttered Georgia’s antiquated all-electronic election system and enabled the critical hand recount of paper ballots in the 2020 presidential election. After successfully defeating summary judgement, David led a team representing non-partisan voters in a month-long bench trial seeking better security for future elections for Georgia’s current electronic voting system, which the team showed is vulnerable to hackers and other bad actors (including those falsely disputing the outcome of the 2020 presidential election). That trial has spurred important legislative efforts in Georgia to try to help shore up the security, transparency, and reliability of the state’s voting system.

Brandie is the legal director of Independent Living Resource Center San Francisco. She supervises ILRCSF’s legal services program. While in law school, Brandie completed over 1500 hours of public interest legal work. After graduating Brandie began practicing law, focusing on all aspects of immigration, criminal defense, and civil litigation. Brandie has substantial experience representing clients. Her experience includes Social Security/benefit matters, requests for reasonable accommodations, pre-eviction matters, immigration matters, and criminal and post-conviction relief. Brandie is passionate about advocating for under-served and marginalized individuals and educating people about their rights.