Kara J. Janssen

Kara J. Janssen is senior counsel at Rosen Bien Galvan & Grunfeld LLP.  She works on complex litigation and prelitigation matters in federal and state court, with an emphasis on structured negotiations, class action litigation, constitutional and civil rights law, and disability rights.

Prior to joining RBGG Ms. Janssen was a Staff Attorney with Disability Rights Legal Center and with Disability Rights Advocates, both national non-profit legal centers, where she was lead attorney on multiple individual and class action matters on behalf of people with disabilities. She is a frequent speaker on legal issues relating to the criminal justice system and the rights of people with disabilities.

Ms. Janssen received a J.D.  from New York University School of Law, where she was a Root-Tilden-Kern scholar, and a B.A., magna cum laude, from University of Arizona. During law school, she interned at the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law in Washington, D.C. and at the Legal Aid Society’s Immigration Unit in New York City.

REPRESENTATIVE CASES

• Babu v. County of Alameda, N.D. Cal No. 5:18-cv-07677-NC: RBGG represents eight prisoners in a class action case filed in December 2018 against Alameda County on behalf of all prisoners, including all prisoners with psychiatric disabilities, challenging the unconstitutional use of isolation, denial of constitutionally adequate mental health treatment, and unlawful segregation of prisoners with mental illness into units without access to programming and other basic services at the County’s Santa Rita and Glenn Dyer Jails. Since the filing of the lawsuit the County closed the Glenn Dyer Jail, located in downtown Oakland, in June of 2019 and the case continues regarding conditions at the Santa Rita Jail located in Dublin.  In January 2019, the Court certified a class of all prisoners who are, or will be, incarcerated at the Santa Rita Jail as well as a subclass of all prisoners with psychiatric disabilities who are, or will be incarcerated at the Jail.  On February 7, 2022, the Court approved a Consent Decree to address problems at the Jail.  Over the next six years RBGG, as Class Counsel will work with the Defendants, the Joint Experts, and the Department of Justice to reform Alameda County Jail in areas covered by the Consent Decree.  RBGG will do this through consulting with class members; developing and implementing policies, procedures, and trainings; monitoring the Jail with the Joint Experts; and if necessary, enforcing the Consent Decree before the Court.
• Structured Negotiations with Lyft:  RBGG’s clients, Kevin Seaman, an interdisciplinary artist, cultural worker, and drag queen whose drag persona is LOL McFiercen, and The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a leading-edge Order of queer and trans nuns devoted to community service, reached a collaborative agreement with Lyft on June 28, 2019 to ensure individuals in the queer and drag communities are not discriminated against by drivers using Lyft’s platform. Under the Agreement, Lyft will develop new content to educate drivers about issues affecting the LGBTQ community; maintain a readily available method for riders to report discrimination via the Lyft App; re-train employees who handle complaints on LGBTQ issues; and develop an appropriate process to ensure that complaints are handled in a sensitive and appropriate manner. RBGG and co-counsel National Center for Lesbian Rights continue to monitor Lyft’s progress in complying with the Agreement.
• Structured Negotiations with Airbnb:  RBGG’s clients, California Council of the Blind and California Foundation for Independent Living Centers, and Airbnb announced on November 20, 2017, that they had reach an agreement to work together to expand Airbnb’s efforts to improve access to its platform for guests with disabilities.  Under the voluntary agreement, Airbnb will continue to implement a series of initiatives including improvements to its nondiscrimination policy, making its website easier for guests with disabilities to search for listings that accommodate them, providing greater assistance to those who use animal support, increasing anti-bias training for Airbnb team members, and ensuring that anyone who is discriminated against because of a disability is promptly rebooked at no additional cost.  RBGG continues to monitor Airbnb’s progress in complying with the voluntary agreement.
• Sabata v. Nebraska Department of Correctional Services:  RBGG and our co-counsel the ACLU of Nebraska, the ACLU National Prison Project, Nebraska Appleseed, the National Association of the Deaf, and DLA Piper filed a class action lawsuit on August 15, 2017 against the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services and Nebraska Board of Parole, challenging the conditions of confinement in Nebraska’s severely overcrowded and understaffed prison system, including constitutionally inadequate medical, dental and mental health care, the overuse of isolation, and the failure to provide reasonable accommodations to prisoners with disabilities.  Nebraska’s prison system is one of the most overcrowded in the US, operating at about 160% of its design capacity, with many prisons at even more dangerously high levels of overcrowding (with nearly twice as many people as they were designed to house).  In June 2020 the Court denied class certification and the parties agreed to voluntarily dismiss the case without prejudice in November 2020.  The voluntary dismissal came after NDCS made progress addressing some of the lawsuit’s concerns including by closing its solitary confinement unit at the Nebraska State Penitentiary, which expert testimony described as among the worst in the nation.  NDCS also significantly reduced the number of people in solitary confinement overall, made significant changes to policies to improve compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, improved access to American Sign Language interpreters, adopted new policies related to mental health levels of care, and made significant improvements to its dental care policies.  (U.S. District Court, District of Nebraska, Case No. 4:17-cv-03107-RFR-MDN.)
• Cole v. County of Santa Clara, N.D. Cal. No. 3:16-cv-06594: RBGG represents five current and former prisoners in a class action on behalf of all prisoners with mobility disabilities to remedy long-standing inaccessibility issues throughout the Santa Clara County Jail system.  The Court certified the class in February 2018, and RBGG and co-counsel Disability Rights Advocates negotiated an extensive and far-reaching consent decree that was approved by U. S. District Court Judge Lucy Koh on March 21, 2019.  The County has agreed to extensive construction efforts to remedy physical barriers within the Jails and to make changes to policies and procedures to ensure prisoners with mobility disabilities have access to programs, assistive devices, and accessible housing, bathing, and dining facilities.
• Blind Parent v. County: We represented a blind parent who was threatened with criminal charges by County Counsel for exercising her rights to talk about her experiences in family court and her concerns that her children were removed from her custody because of her blindness. We successfully argued that denying the parent the ability to speak with the press regarding her personal experiences violated the First Amendment. We convinced County Counsel to drop any claims that her conduct was criminal and obtained an order from the family court judge permitting the parent to speak with the press.
• Amici Curiae Brief on Behalf of Deaf Advocacy Organizations in Ivy v. Morath: RBGG submitted a friend of the court brief on behalf of the National Association of the Deaf and six other deaf advocacy organizations urging the Supreme Court to recognize that a state-mandated driver education program must be operated and regulated by the state in a manner that is accessible to deaf individuals and in compliance with the Americans with Disability Act and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.