Obituary

Harvey Shapiro, a Los Angeles quadriplegic attorney who championed the rights of the handicapped, has died at the age of 49.

Shapiro, paralyzed from the neck down by a diving accident when he was 14, died Aug. 30 at UCLA Medical Center of complications of pneumonia.

Never giving in to his physical limits, he graduated magna cum laude from UCLA School of Law. When his mentor and employer, criminal defense attorney Harland Braun, asked if Shapiro could be given more time or an adjusted score on the bar exam, the requests were refused.

Shapiro, who couldn’t turn a page or write, was given the exam orally but received no extra time and or adjustment on his score. He passed, and became the first quadriplegic admitted to the State Bar of California. Shapiro was sworn in privately by then-California Chief Justice Rose Bird.

Shapiro identified with problems faced by handicapped people. As a lawyer, he helped turn around Los Angeles’ enforcement of state laws guaranteeing equal access to buildings and other facilities for the handicapped.

“Easy access to buildings doesn’t only benefit individuals with disabilities,” Shapiro told The Times in 1988, when he served on the city’s Handicapped Access Appeals Commission. “It also helps the woman who is pregnant or the parent with a stroller. It benefits the worker who has to pull a cart in. In the grand scheme of our environment, easy access is not something to irritate someone.”

In addition to serving as president of the appeals commission, Shapiro was a founding member and chairman of the board of the Western Law Center for the Handicapped, former chairman of the Los Angeles County Commission on Disabilities and former chairman of the Mayor’s Advisory Council on the Handicapped.

He also headed the board of the Modern City Repertoire Dance Company and served on the board of the Fulfillment Fund, a mentoring and scholarship program for disadvantaged youths.

Shapiro taught at the UCLA School of Medicine and served on the Ethics Committee of the UCLA Medical Center.

He is survived by his sister, Barbara Fribush of Burtonsville, Md.