As we announced earlier on CREEC’s website, we finally settled the almost 12-year-old Taco Bell case.  Although the settlement requires notice and court approval, we decided to indulge in a bit of BBQ-based celebration on Thursday evening at T-Rex in Berkeley with most but not all of our wonderful team.   Unfortunately, my stubborn insistence on never using the pop-up flash on my camera resulted in some pretty blurry and/or grainy photos.  Blerg.  I’m now looking for an external flash for an Olympus XZ-2 that can tilt but that does not turn the whole thing into a giant, lumbering, unwieldy piece of photographic equipment.

On to our team!  Here is the core litigation team — sans Tony Lawson, who was in LA, and Brad Seligman, who is now The Hon. and had pre-existing obligations relating to his talented musical daughters. It also doesn’t include the wonderful Dan Goldstein, who joined the team last fall to assist with settlement and who deserves huge heaping helpings of praise (and, later, scotch) for his successful efforts.

Below:  lawyers Tim Fox, me, Mari Mayeda, and Jocelyn Larkin and Named Plaintiff (and disability rights goddess) Corbett.

Bill Lee, who through his own work and that of his firm, was incredibly helpful to and supportive of our case.

Co-counsel Robert Schug and Jocelyn Larkin of the Impact Fund and mentor Lainey Feingold.  (I really do need to investigate the flash situation….)

Future civil rights rock stars Sarah Morris (CREEC) and Meredith Johnson* (Impact Fund) plotting world domination.

Tim’s assistant Dustin McNa enjoys some of T-Rex’s famed health food.

And finally, the highlight of the evening:  obscure whiskey tasting!  The bartender told us this was a bottle from the latch batch ever of this whiskey.  “Like drinking a dodo bird,” explained Dustin.

This post doesn’t even begin to recognize all of the people who helped us out over the past 12 years.  We’ll have a more complete, better-photographed version after (God willing) final approval.

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* It turns out Meredith and Tim both went to St. Olaf College in The Middle of Somewhere Very Cold, Minnesota.  We were treated to a brief but inspiring rendition of their college fight song, “Um Yah Yah” (which I think translates as “What Were We Thinking???”).   If you think I’m making that up — at least the song title part — check the school’s website!