Kathleen Cahill Law
N/a
© Kathleen Cahill Law. 2026 | All rights reserved.
(410) 321-6171
Your value at work should be measured by what you can do, not by a diagnosis, an injury, or a period of illness — and when an employer loses sight of that, the law gives you solid footing to push back. I have extensive experience representing Baltimore’s workforce — from its hospital systems, universities, the port, hospitality, financial services, and city government — in disability discrimination, accommodation, and medical leave disputes. As a Baltimore disability rights lawyer, I provide legal representation navigating the full range of disability issues employees confront at work. I work to help employees confronting these difficult issues to understand their rights, secure the accommodations they need, manage medical leave, and fight back when an employer retaliates against them for asserting their rights.
Employees with disabilities working in Baltimore are protected by overlapping layers of law. At the federal level, the Americans with Disabilities Act protects individuals with disabilities from discrimination and requires reasonable accommodations. Maryland’s Fair Employment Practices Act provides largely parallel protections, and in some instances, broader rights. Together, these laws reach hiring, firing, promotions, pay, job assignments, harassment, and the accommodations process itself. The policy behind these robust laws is to secure a work environment where an employee’s disability is not used against them.
Baltimore adds one more layer: the city’s Office of Civil Rights and Community Relations Commission accepts and investigates workplace discrimination complaints, including disability-related claims, arising from conduct within the city. Depending on your situation, having a resource separate from the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Maryland Commission on Civil Rights, can matter. One of our first strategic decisions is to determine which agency makes sense for your particular circumstances.
Disability discrimination claims can arise under several different legal theories, and as a disability discrimination attorney, I start by figuring out which theory or theories apply to your situation — whether your employer failed to accommodate you, retaliated against you, or discriminated against you. Here’s an overview of the legal protections and paths that come up most often in my work assisting Baltimore employees.
The ADA prohibits employers with 15 or more employees from discriminating against qualified individuals with disabilities, and it defines disability broadly — a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits a major life activity, a record of one, or being regarded by your employer as having a disability when you do not. The ADA also requires reasonable accommodations and prohibits retaliation against employees who request them or otherwise assert their rights. I help Baltimore clients figure out whether their situation fits within the ADA’s protections, and if so, which is the strongest path forward to rectify their difficult circumstances.
A reasonable accommodation is a change to your job or work environment that lets you perform your essential duties despite a disability — a modified schedule, additional breaks, assistive equipment, remote work, or reassignment to a vacant position, among other possibilities. Employers must engage in good faith in an interactive process to identify an effective accommodation, and they can only refuse to provide one if it would impose a genuine, significant hardship on the business, not simply an inconvenience. I help clients navigate the accommodation process from the very beginning, and I help them pursue claims when a legitimate request gets denied, delayed, or ignored entirely.
The Family and Medical Leave Act entitles eligible employees to up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave for a serious health condition, among other qualifying reasons, and requires your employer to restore you to the same or an equivalent position when you return. Maryland has its own leave protections that can apply alongside or independently of the FMLA, depending on your employer’s size and your specific situation. Leave-related problems are not formulaic — an employer might discourage you from taking leave, or treat your leave as a performance issue, or simply refuse to reinstate you to an equivalent role afterward. The strategic approach and legal solution are not formulaic either. I help Baltimore employees figure out when the employer’s leave mismanagement crosses the line into something legally actionable, and what to do about it.
Disability-related retaliation happens when your employer punishes you for requesting an accommodation, taking medical leave, filing a complaint, or otherwise asserting your rights under the ADA or Maryland disability rights law — whether through an unwarranted demotion, a sudden negative performance review, unjustified exclusion from projects, reduced hours, or termination. The law protects you from retaliation even if your underlying accommodation or discrimination claim doesn’t ultimately succeed, provided you raised the underlying claim in good faith. When the retaliation escalates to a discharge, it can overlap with a wrongful termination claim, and I evaluate both angles together to maximize your position and your available damages. Timing often tells the story here: an employee performing well before disclosing a disability or requesting leave, then their standing changes noticeably afterward.
A failure-to-accommodate claim is different from a straightforward discrimination claim — it doesn’t require showing your employer acted out of bias, only that they failed to provide an accommodation you were entitled and needed to do your job. These claims often come down to whether your employer actually engaged in the interactive process in good faith, or instead ignored your request, delayed indefinitely, or rejected it without seriously considering alternatives. I regularly represent employees whose employers skipped that process entirely, declared an accommodation too difficult without genuinely considering it, or offered something that didn’t actually solve the problem.
Dealing with a serious illness or an injury is hard enough without also worrying about your job security. Maryland and federal law – along with a lawyer experienced in working with those statutes — provide real protection during that difficult time. Depending on your circumstances, protection might come through the ADA’s accommodation requirements, FMLA leave, Maryland workers’ compensation protections if the injury is work-related, short- or long-term disability insurance benefits, or some combination of these. I help clients sort out which protections apply to their specific situation, because illness and injury cases often involve more than one legal framework at the same time, and missing one of them can mean missing out on the best claims and remedies.
If you believe your employer is discriminating against you because of a medical condition or disability, taking a few steps early on can protect your options:
Dealing with an illness, injury, or a disability at work is hard enough without also having to fight for basic fairness and accommodations. Kathleen Cahill Law is a law firm built around representing employees, not employers, and I bring my tenacity to every disability case I take on — ADA violations, failure to accommodate, FMLA and medical leave issues, and retaliation. Your disability case is not best managed by lawyers with a broad general practice, given the complexities of this area of law. It needs and deserves someone who understands the specific legal protections available to Baltimore employees and knows how to apply them to bring you solutions. For questions reaching beyond disability issues in the employment relationship, my Maryland employment law page walks through what other employment rights issues I handle. For a Baltimore disability lawyer ready to help you protect your rights, contact me today.
Kathleen Cahill Law
N/a