Mental Disability Law: Civil and Criminal

Michael L. Perlin is Professor of Law at New York Law School. He has served as Deputy Public Defender and Director of the Division of Mental Health Advocacy in the Department of the Public Advocate of New Jersey and was a member of the Task Force on Legal and Ethical Issues on President Carter's Commission on Mental Health. He is a member of the National Advocacy Board at the Institute on Mental Disability and Law of the National Center for State Courts. He is the 1988 recipient of the Amicus Award of the American Academy of Psychiatry and Law, and has written and lectured extensively on all aspects of mental disability law. Mental Disability Law: Civil and Criminal was awarded The Walter Jeffors writing prize in 1990.

Heather Ellis Cucolo is an adjunct professor and the current director of New York Law School's Online Mental Disability Law Program. She has contributed to the development of courses for the program as well as assisted in collaboration with Asia-Pacific partners to foster international distance learning. She has represented individuals facing civil commitment under both The New Jersey Mental Hygiene Law and the New Jersey's Sexually Violent Predators Act. Prof. Cucolo has published and lectured, both domestically and internationally, in the areas of mental disability law, criminal law and sex offender law. She has been recognized as one of the premiere experts in sexual violent predator law and has counseled attorneys, judges and clinicians on law and procedure in civil commitment proceedings and issues involving persons suffering from a mental disability or illness within the criminal justice system. Professor Cucolo teaches the Americans with Disabilities Act to both law students and other professionals and has advised international attorneys on the benefits and implications of the ADA.