Michael G Allen

Michael Allen is a Partner at Relman Colfax. Michael joined the firm in 2006. His civil rights litigation practice focuses on the Fair Housing Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and related civil rights laws, with an emphasis on dismantling barriers to integration on the basis of disability and of race. Over the past decade, Michael has led the firm’s disability rights practice as it litigated dozens of housing discrimination cases. Among the most prominent is Independent Living Center v. City of Los Angeles, which challenged the city’s failure to ensure that its 70,000-unit affordable housing program complied with federal and state accessibility requirements. When it resolved in 2016, it was the largest settlement of its kind anywhere in the country. Michael has also used litigation and administrative complaints to challenge policies that perpetuate racial and ethnic segregation. One of his better-known cases is U.S. ex rel. Anti-Discrimination Center v. Westchester County, which was one of the first private lawsuits to employ the False Claims Act to enforce the federal obligation to “affirmatively further fair housing.” That case established important precedent, and resulted in a $63.5 million remedy, including the construction of 750 units of affordable housing in higher-opportunity neighborhoods. Prior to joining the firm, Michael was senior staff attorney at the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, where he focused on civil rights policy development and litigation involving people with psychiatric disabilities. Before that, he was an attorney with Legal Services of Northern Virginia with a focus on representing low-income clients in housing litigation and policy advocacy. Michael has received numerous awards and honors, including the Reginald Heber Smith Community Lawyer Fellowship (1985-86) and the Wasserstein Public Interest Visiting Fellow, Harvard University School of Law (2005). He is a founding Member and the Chair of the Board of Directors of Pathways to Housing in Washington, D.C., and has served on the board since 2004. J.D., University of Virginia B.S., Georgetown University