Mary J. Goodwin-Oquendo L’09 learned what true advocacy looks like long before she ever stepped into a law school classroom. Growing up, she watched her mother tirelessly fight to secure appropriate educational services for her younger brother, who has autism and learning disabilities. Seeing firsthand how complex systems can fail families, she began to ask a powerful question: Who helps students who do not have anyone able to challenge the system for them?
Today, Goodwin-Oquendo is that advocate. As the founder of The Goodwin-Oquendo Law Firm in New York City, she champions disability civil rights, particularly related to education, standardized testing, professional licensing, and employment. Getting to this point took grit, talent, and determination. She credits Syracuse University College of Law for providing the foundation, flexibility, and mentorship she needed to earn her law degree and pursue the work that drives her— advocating for others through the legal system.
Goodwin-Oquendo will speak about her experiences and the process of advocating for bar exam accommodations in the spring of 2026 at a webinar hosted by the Disability Law and Policy Program (DLPP). The presentation was purposefully planned as a virtual event, as it accommodates Goodwin-Oquendo’s disability-related needs, as well as those of attendees with disabilities, and allows both on-campus and online JDinteractive students, in addition to other guests around the country, to participate.
Walking in the Steps of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Goodwin-Oquendo’s desire to be a lawyer started early. She studied at the James Madison High School Law Institute in Brooklyn, New York—the same school the late United States Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg attended. The four-year program helps students understand the legal system through law classes, moot court, and mock trials. She came to see attorneys as “helpers,” and realized the law could be her pathway to advocate for those who needed a voice.
Facing Her Challenges and Finding a Mentor
While pursuing her undergraduate degree at St. Joseph’s University in New York, Goodwin-Oquendo was diagnosed with fibromyalgia and learned first-hand how difficult it was to navigate higher education with “an invisible, poorly understood disability.”
However, she learned how to self-accommodate her disabilities, graduated as valedictorian, and set her sights on law school. She ultimately chose Syracuse Law because of its various clinics, particularly The Family Law Clinic, because she knew the challenges from clients who felt vulnerable or unheard would make her a more respectful and transparent lawyer.
Her first year wasn’t easy, as Goodwin-Oquendo navigated the demands as a 1L while managing a physical condition that fluctuated day to day. This was compounded by her lack of health insurance (prior to the Affordable Care Act), which limited her ability to receive the care she needed.
“I went from graduating first in my class in college to struggling in my first semester of law school because I didn’t have the physical stamina to keep up the pace,” she explains. “Some of the strategies that had worked in high school and college just didn’t work anymore because the expectations of law school were much higher.”
Fortunately, she enrolled in a class led by Professor of Law Arlene Kanter, who took emeritus status in 2024, Kanter is an acclaimed expert in international and comparative disability law and helped Goodwin-Oquendo understand the accommodations she was entitled to. (Kanter founded the DLPP at Syracuse Law in 2005, one of the nation’s most extensive disability law programs in the U.S.) She is forever grateful to Kanter, who remains a role model, for helping her find ways to manage her disability and continue to succeed. For the past five years, Goodwin-Oquendo has been an adjunct professor at Fordham University School of Law, in part, she says, “to be for my students what Professor Kanter was for me.”
“Professor Kanter had many resources, including this ‘holy book’ of disability law firms in the New York area, which were few and far between,” explains Goodwin-Oquendo. “She encouraged me during my 2L year to reach out to Jo Anne Simon, a disability civil rights attorney in Brooklyn, who later became a state assembly member, to learn more about working in this part of the legal field.”
They connected, and soon Simon offered Goodwin-Oquendo a summer job at the firm. In 2008, the Americans with Disabilities Amendments Act was passed, reaffirming Congress’s commitment to disability rights. That law shaped a lot of the work Goodwin-Oquendo did at the firm.
“It was not light work,” she says, “but the job training I received was nothing short of phenomenal—so much so that I joined her firm after law school and stayed there for the next 14 years. Jo Anne remains a dear friend and mentor, and she has done so much to advance the rights of individuals with disabilities.”
Establishing Her Own Firm for Educational Advocacy
In 2024, she launched the Goodwin-Oquendo Law Firm in New York City, dedicated to representing individuals with cognitive, physical, and psychiatric disabilities who face discrimination or need accommodations in education for admissions tests, professional licensing exams, state bar exams, and medical boards.
“People come to me because they clearly need certain accommodations to fully access and complete an exam, for example, and they are being denied this for the highest stakes exam of their lives,” she explains, noting there is still a level of ignorance around the use of technology on examinations.
“Others come to me because they’ve received a diagnosis later in life or have been living with a disability that wasn’t as challenging for them until they reached college, law school, or medical school, and now they need someone to help them understand their options and advocate for their rights.”
Goodwin-Oquendo operates her firm virtually, which not only accommodates her disabilities but also allows her to assist clients around the country. “Business is booming, which sounds great, but it is actually a little sad because that means there is still a lot of discrimination for those with disabilities,” she says.
She recently hired Syracuse Law alumna Ptahra Jeppe L’19 as counsel to the firm. Jeppe started as a client and mentee but was so impressive that Goodwin-Oquendo asked her to join in 2025. Jeppe has dyslexia and practiced special education law for several years, which has added another area of mastery to the practice.
Goodwin-Oquendo’s advocacy continues at Syracuse University, where she now serves on the Center on Disability and Inclusion’s Advisory Committee. She’s also involved in the broader legal community as a member of the Disability Rights Bar Association and the New York State Bar Association, serving on its Committee on Disability Rights, where she enjoys creating Continuing Legal Education (CLE) courses for attorneys and serves as one of the editors of its disability treatise.
She finds value in serving others. “I want to keep pushing myself, and what keeps me going are the former clients who reach out and say, for example, they passed the bar, or they are now a licensed physician or educator,” Goodwin-Oquendo explains.
“Their unique experiences will enrich these fields. I am grateful for the education, advocacy, and overall encouragement from Syracuse Law that helped me get to where I am today. And it will be a full circle moment to share my experiences with students at the College of Law this spring.”