About Chris
Chris Edmunds’ experience runs the gamut: he’s worked on everything from routine disputes like insurance and employment discrimination claims, to much more serious matters like death penalty appeals and disputes between Congress and the President. Since opening his own practice in 2020, he has obtained relief for scores of clients. While he handles all sorts of matters, his practice focuses on two areas in particular: appellate practice and disability rights. As a parent of a child with multiple disabilities, Chris understands full well that disability discrimination is pervasive and demoralizing. He has represented people with all sorts of disabilities, including deafness, autism, depression, ADHD, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, PTSD, and diabetes.
Chris’ journey to the law was a winding one. Before pursuing a career in law, he was a professional musician. He obtained an undergraduate degree in music composition from Columbia College Chicago and then moved back to his hometown of New Orleans, where he worked for several years as a guitarist and tenor banjoist for traditional jazz bands. He also led his own award-winning band, the New Orleans Moonshiners. The Moonshiners performed at Lincoln Center in New York City and were regular performers at New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and French Quarter Festival. Their 2011 album, Frenchmen St. Parade, was voted Best Traditional Jazz Album by the readers of Offbeat Magazine.
Over time, Chris’ interests shifted to the law, and he enrolled at Tulane University Law School. At Tulane, he served as the Senior Notes and Comments Editor of the Tulane Law Review and published two articles: The Judicial Sieve: A Critical Analysis of Federal Circuit Courts’ Use of Rule 28 Waiver for Inadequate Briefing, 91 Tul. L. Rev. 561, and The ‘Tinker-Bell’ Framework: The Fifth Circuit Places Facebook Inside the Schoolhouse Gate in Bell v. Itawamba County School Board, 90 Tul. L. Rev. 1017. Upon graduation, Chris was inducted into the Order of Coif and was awarded the John Minor Wisdom Award for academic excellence and selflessness and the Federal Bar Association Award for excellence in federal law.
After graduating magna cum laude from Tulane Law in 2017, Chris spent three years serving as a judicial law clerk for three different judges. It was during this time that he learned the nuts and bolts of federal litigation, especially the nuances of appeals. First, he served as a law clerk for Judge Abdul Kallon on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama. A year later, he clerked on the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit for Judge Greg Phillips. Finally, Chris served as a law clerk for Judge Robert Wilkins on the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, colloquially known as the “second highest court in the land,” due to the inordinate number of high-stakes political and administrative disputes on its docket. During his three years of clerking, Chris encountered just about every area of law. Among other things, he encountered immigration cases, criminal law (including direct appeals and habeas petitions), employment discrimination, contract disputes, insurance disputes, personal injury suits, securities law, energy regulation, and First Amendment challenges.
Chris has been licensed to practice law in Louisiana since 2017, and in August 2020 he opened his own practice, which focuses on disability rights and appeals. His passion for disability law stems from his son, who is a wheelchair user and has a rare genetic condition that causes many physical and cognitive disabilities. Chris is also an active member of the Louisiana legal community. The Louisiana Bar Association recently appointed Chris to serve as a co-chair of the Legal Services for Persons with Disabilities Committee, with whom he conducts CLEs and training services on legal obligations to people with disabilities under state and federal law. He is also a member of the Disability Rights Bar Association. Most recently, Chris was appointed to serve as a member of the Criminal Justice Act Panel to provide appellate representation to indigent defendants in federal court.
Areas of Practice
DISABILITY DISCRIMINATION and the ADA
Chris represents clients who have been discriminated against because of their disability. People with disabilities comprise around 20% of the U.S. population. In addition to commonly recognized disabilities like mobility impairments or blindness, there are many so-called “invisible” disabilities, such as epilepsy, diabetes, or mental illness. Various federal and state laws require that people with disabilities receive equal enjoyment of virtually everything society has to offer. These rights derive primarily from the Americans with Disabilities Act, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and the Fair Housing Act, as well as similar state laws. The central idea behind disability-rights laws is that various structural barriers exclude people with disabilities, and we have a responsibility to accommodate them by breaking down those barriers and give them an equal opportunity to participate in society.
Disability discrimination may include (but is not limited to):
Public accommodations: This may include private businesses whose physical structures are inaccessible (such as a lack of wheelchair access), or a website that lacks accessibility features for the visually impaired.
Housing: This may include selling or leasing homes or apartments that do not comply with accessibility standards, refusing to allow a disabled tenant to make reasonable modifications to a home, or denying a tenant the right to keep an assistance animal in the home.
Employment: This may include the failure to interview or hire a candidate because of a disability, firing an employee because of a disability, or failing to make a reasonable modification to the disabled employee’s schedule or workspace.
Transportation: This may include buses, trains, taxicabs, or ridesharing apps that are inaccessible to people with disabilities or otherwise discriminate against people with disabilities.
Education: Private and public schools must comply with a wide array of disability-discrimination laws, which may require them to provide accommodations to students with disabilities, including learning disabilities such as dyslexia. Such accommodations may include allowing extra time to take exams, providing an ASL translator for classes, or the use of a calculator.
Telecommunication: This may include inaccessible phone or internet services, such as a 911 emergency service that does not accommodate hearing impaired people who use teletypewriters.
Programs or activities run by the government or by a private business performing a government function: This category can include just about any service that a public entity provides, such as inaccessible sidewalks, inaccessible prisons, or loan programs that discriminate against people with disabilities.
As the father of a child with myriad disabilities, Chris understands firsthand how pervasive and demoralizing disability discrimination is. Even worse is the widespread ignorance about what the law requires of people. If you feel you’ve experienced discrimination due to your past or present disability or because of your relationship with a disabled person, Chris can help you defend your rights.
APPEALS
Contrary to popular belief, an appeal is not a second chance to conduct a trial. Instead, appellate courts generally consider only specific issues or alleged errors by the trial court. Unfortunately, many trial lawyers lack experience with the nuances of the appeals process, including whether to appeal, what issues to appeal, and how to preserve issues for the appellate court’s consideration. Chris handles all kinds of appeals in both federal and state court, including:
criminal convictions or sentences (including collateral challenges, such as habeas corpus petitions)
civil rights claims, including discrimination based on race, sex, religion, national origin, or disability
insurance denials and contract disputes
personal injury and defamation claims
First Amendment claims
Chris also handles appeals of administrative decisions by state and federal agencies, including:
IDEA claims (disability discrimination in education)
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests
immigration decisions
Be mindful that strict time limits may apply to your appeal — the sooner you reach out, the better.
SCHEDULE A FREE CONSULTATION
Chris Edmunds Law Office is an ADA-compliant office space with an ADA-compliant restroom. Consultations may also be conducted over the phone or via teleconference.