Center for Public Representation Attorney Staff

Steven Schwartz

Steven J. Schwartz, the Executive Director of the Center for Public Representation, began practicing mental disability law in 1971. He has extensive experience litigating class action cases challenging issues related to the institutional confinement and community integration of persons with disabilities, and has successfully resolved a number of damage cases for individuals with disabilities. Mr. Schwartz has authored a number of law review articles, testified before Congress on P&A authorizing legislation and abuse and neglect issues, and served on the faculty of the Harvard and Western New England Law Schools.

Robert Fleischner

Robert D. Fleischner has been practicing mental disability law since 1973. He is a national expert on P&A access, advance directives, and guardianship. He was on the faculty of the Western New England Law School and Smith College School of Social Work. Bob is the co-author of Guardianship and Conservatorship in Massachusetts, published by Lexis, and has written several law review articles. He has litigated community integration, civil commitment, prison mental health, juvenile justice, guardianship, and fair housing cases.

Cathy Costanzo

Cathy Costanzo has worked in the mental disability law field since 1977 and has extensive experience in providing representation to institutionalized persons throughout the country. She is the former director of the Massachusetts PAIMI Project and the former chair of NDRN's Legal Committee. Ms. Costanzo is co-counsel in a number of class action cases in New Mexico, Massachusetts, Washington DC, and Arizona which seek to promote the integration and to expand the rights of persons with psychiatric and developmental disabilities. She has directed the Center's restraint and seclusion project, its death watch project, and its multi-state initiative on challenging the use of aversive punishment on persons with developmental disabilities.

Susan Stefan

Susan Stefan retired in February 2010. Prior to joining the staff of the Center for Public Representation in 2001, Susan taught Disability Law and Mental Health Law at the University of Miami School of Law. She has written three important books, Emergency Department Treatment of the Psychiatric Patient (Oxford Univ. Press 2006), Unequal Rights: Discrimination Against People with Mental Disabilities and the Americans with Disabilities Act (APA Press 2001) and Hollow Promises: Employment Discrimination Against People with Mental Disabilities (APA Press 2002), as well as numerous articles and chapters on mental health law and disability law.

David Engle

Attorney David Engle directs the Center's Disability Benefits Unit, representing mentally and/or physically disabled SSDI claimants in administrative proceedings and federal court. He has been employed at CPR since 1988. A 1972 graduate of Dartmouth College, Dave received a master's degree in Special Education (1974) and his law degree (1978) from Boston University. Prior to coming to CPR, he was employed by the Citizen Advocacy Project of the Massachusetts Association for Retarded Citizens and as the Assistant Director of the Mental Health Legal Advisors Committee (MHLAC) of the Supreme Judicial Court. Dave serves, by appointment of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, on the Board of Directors of the Mental Health Legal Advisors Committee. In addition to his SSDI work, Dave represents clients with disabilities in civil commitment, substituted judgment, application for discharge, and discrimination cases.

Kathryn Rucker

Kathryn Rucker received her undergraduate education from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts where she studied English and Peace Studies. She is a graduate of Northeastern University School of Law, and has been working with the Center since August, 1999. Kathryn's individual representation and her systemic reform work focus on serving individuals with serious mental illness in hospital and community residential settings. She is also co-counsel in several of the Center's class action lawsuits.

Santina Sciaba-Douglas

Santina Sciaba-Douglas provides representation to residents of Hampshire and Franklin Counties of Massachusetts in appeals of denials of SSI benefits. Santina is a 2000 graduate of Western New England College School of Law. She was a law clerk to the justices of the Massachusetts Superior Court and has had her own private law practice. In addition to her social security law expertise, she is an experienced mental health and juvenile law advocate. Santina is fluent in Spanish.

Pat Rae

J. Paterson Rae joined CPR in August 2007 from Western Massachusetts Legal Services, where he was the litigation director from 1992 to 2007.  He has litigated numerous class actions and appeals in a variety of different areas, including disability, Medicaid, welfare, housing and employment.  He has designed and delivered trainings on various topics, including Affirmative Litigation, Trial Skills, §1983 litigation issues, the integration mandate of the ADA, attorneys fees, and appellate advocacy at the national, regional and state levels.  He is one of the co-authors of the Federal Practice Manual published by Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law.  He graduated from Brown University and received his law degree from New York University School of Law.