For over 30 years, Linda D. Kilb has been an attorney with the Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund (DREDF), based in Berkeley, California. Founded in 1979 by a unique alliance of people with disabilities and parents of children with disabilities, DREDF is a national nonprofit law and policy center dedicated to protecting and advancing the civil rights of people with disabilities.
Ms. Kilb represents plaintiffs and amici in litigation brought under a range of federal and California disability rights laws in federal and state courts; participates in policy development, administrative and legislative education efforts; and provides training and advice to attorneys, advocates, and people with disabilities.
Since the 1990s, Ms. Kilb has been the Director of DREDF’s California Legal Services Trust Fund Support Center Program. She is active in policy, legislative and litigation work to preserve and enforce California’s expansive civil rights protections. She was involved in the passage process leading to the Prudence K. Poppink Act of 2000 (AB 2222). She provided appellant counsel representation in Colmenares v. Braemar Country Club, Inc. (Feb. 20, 2003) 29 Cal. 4th 1019, which confirmed the breadth and independence of California’s disability civil rights laws. She co-authored an amicus brief in White v. Square, Inc. (Aug. 12, 2019) 7 Cal. 5th 1019, which confirmed broad standing as to state law civil rights claims involving websites.
From 2003-2008 Ms. Kilb served on the board of the Legal Aid Association of California (LAAC), which is the unified voice of legal services in California. She had an adjunct faculty appointment at U.C. Berkeley School of Law from 1999-2008, where she co-taught a Disability Rights Law seminar course. In 1999 she received a Harvard Law School Wasserstein Public Interest Fellowship, awarded to experienced public interest attorneys with demonstrated interest in and ability to mentor law students seeking social justice careers.
Ms. Kilb received her undergraduate degree summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa in political science from the University of California at Berkeley in 1985. She was graduated with honors from the Harvard Law School in 1988.
In October 2019, Ms. Kilb received the 2019 Loren Miller Legal Services Award from the California Lawyers Association. The award honors her career achievement extending legal services to low-income and underserved communities.