Welcome!

Welcome to Lainey Feingold’s website. Lainey is a disability rights lawyer who has worked to make the digital world more accessible since 1995. She helped negotiate the first web accessibility agreement in the United States in 2000. Read a short summary of this page.

Lainey developed and practices Structured Negotiation, a dispute resolution and collaboration strategy that avoids lawsuits, focuses on lasting change and relationship-building, and has been used to advance accessibility for more than a quarter century. She is the author of Structured Negotiation: A Winning Alternative to Lawsuits.

Lainey is also a consultant and an international speaker and trainer on issues including collaborative problem solving (Structured Negotiation), the digital accessibility legal space, accessible procurement, and best practices for baking digital accessibility into policies and practices of organizations large and small. Read what people say about Lainey Feingold’s talks and trainings.

In 2017 she was selected as an American Bar Association Legal Rebel – a group of “innovators who are remaking the legal profession.” She has twice been recognized with a California Lawyer Attorney of the Year (CLAY) award (in 2000 and 2014).

This website was designed to be usable by people with and without disabilities. Read our Accessibility Statement for more information.

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Why dolphins?

The dolphins swimming at the top of Lainey’s website are there for a reason. People often associate shark-like behavior as necessary for effective advocacy. Lainey’s experience says otherwise.

She uses the shark vs. dolphin metaphor in her book, other writings, talks, and trainings to drive home a simple idea: You don’t have to be a shark to get things done. Dolphin skills include open communication, transparency, collaboration, active listening, and relationship-building.

These and similar qualities have contributed to successful Structured Negotiation outcomes without the conflict of litigation for more than two decades. Read more about dolphins and negotiating qualities.

Lainey Feingold holding a microphone and speaking at an event
Structured Negotiation talk in Sydney Australia

Invite Lainey to Speak

Lainey Feingold is a popular speaker about the digital accessibility legal space, Structured Negotiation, and best practices for organizations that want to practice disability inclusion and avoid accessibility lawsuits. She offers keynotes, other presentations, and trainings at conferences, meetings, webinars, CLE courses and classes both within and outside the United States.

Visit the Talks and Trainings page to learn what Lainey can offer your audience.

Read what people say about Lainey’s talks and trainings.

Visit the speaking page

Lainey is an incredible teacher. She co-developed and taught a Continuing Legal Education program about using Structured Negotiation to achieve health care coverage for transgender people. Her generosity and expertise shone at every step of the process from developing & delivering the workshop to debriefing. I learned a lot and do my best to use it in day-to-day practice. She is a wonderful teacher.

Ezra Cukor, Senior Staff Attorney, Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund (TLDEF)

Read the Second Edition of Lainey's Book

Structured Negotiation: A Winning Alternative to Lawsuits shares stories from 25 years of successful collaborations about accessible technology with some of the largest public and private organizations in the United States.

The Second Edition, published Fall 2021, includes new Structured Negotiation win-wins and Forewords by Haben Girma, disability justice and human rights lawyer and author of the best-selling Haben: The Deafblind Woman who Conquered Harvard Law and by Susana Sucunza, Basque Country Spain collaborative lawyer and president of the Basque Country Collaborative Law Association.

Not just for lawyers, the book offers an effective and path-breaking method to resolve disputes without lawsuits, and to lessen the conflict and expense of filed cases. Strategies include practical tips and tools for breaking down barriers and advancing digital accessibility and disability inclusion. Read what people say about Lainey’s book.

Visit the Book page
Structured Negotiation cover on an ipad with a cup of coffee

Building a more inclusive and accessible world takes patience, partnership and persistence, and a copy of this book! Lainey is the expert on how to work collaboratively to create long term societal inclusion.

~
Jenny Lay-Flurrie, Chief Accessibility Officer, Microsoft

On this page

This is Lainey Feingold’s website.  Lainey is a disability rights lawyer and a public speaker. She is also an author. Lainey works to make technology and other information available to disabled people. Lainey believes people should try to work together to solve problems. Instead of filing lawsuits, she uses Structured Negotiation. This helps build relationships and avoid conflict. Lainey wrote a book called Structured Negotiation, A Winning Alternative to Lawsuits. It tells stories of twenty-five years of working to make digital tools accessible to disabled people. This paragraph is a simplified version of the content on this page of Lainey’s website. This website includes these summaries to help make it accessible to as many people as possible.

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