Timothy R. Elder

Tim founded TRE Legal Practice to fight for the rights of disabled people.

Tim is a civil rights litigator focusing on disability discrimination cases. Prior to establishing the TRE Legal Practice, he was associated at Brown, Goldstein & Levy as a Disability Rights Fellow. He has helped secure injunctions against testing entities for their failure to accommodate disabled students, negotiated groundbreaking settlements with publicly traded companies, tried employment discrimination and effective communication claims before juries and argued before federal trial and appellate courts.

Tim graduated magna cum laude from the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco (formerly UC Hastings). During law school, he externed with the Hon. Marilyn Hall Patel of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. He also clerked for the Legal Aid Society Employment Law Center in San Francisco, where he worked on complex employment discrimination cases and represented low-income workers at administrative hearings.

Tim Elder with press in front of U. S. Supreme Court

In 2008, Tim was awarded the TenBroek Fellowship for commitment to disability rights, and in 2010, Tim was a recipient of The Daily Record’s VIP by 40 Award, which recognizes younger professionals in Maryland for their professional accomplishments, civic involvement, and impact of achievement.

Tim regularly presents on the topic of disability law. He holds leadership positions in the American Bar Association and the National Association of Blind Lawyers. He is also a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation. Through his civic involvement, he actively works to promote diversity within the legal profession.

Selected Cases

  • Case Profile: Bashin v. Conduent, Inc.

    Bryan Bashin, a blind camping enthusiast, brought suit under the California False Claims Act (CFCA) and California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act after learning that Conduent State & Local Solutions, Inc. and its contractor, US eDirect, Inc., had contracted with the California Department of Parks and Recreation to deliver a public-facing reservations website that was accessible to blind users–and then delivered a website that was not accessible. The case settled in November 2023. Case Profile >

  • Case Profile: West Valley College

    To make sure that innovative new language learning tools were accessible to disabled students, TRE Legal Practice worked with West Valley College through structured negotiations to come up with a Settlement Agreement to address and prevent such problems. Case Profile >

Selected Media