True to a cause

A longtime advocate for people with disabilities has taken his leave of the Disability Law Center — where he has been executive director for a staff of 25 (14 of them lawyers) in offices in Boston and Northampton — and is joining the administration of Gov. Deval L. Patrick.

Stanley J. Eichner, 58, who has led the DLC since February 2006 and served as its director of litigation for seven years before that, left his post on March 14 for a policy position with Dr. Jean McGuire, assistant secretary for disability policy and programs within the Executive Office of Health and Human Services.

"I'll be working on a wide range of disability policy issues, including employment, housing and transition from special education to employment for people with disabilities," Eichner explains.

His experience in advocacy on behalf of those with disabilities included 11 years (1988 to 1999) in the civil rights division within the Attorney General's Office, and, in that capacity, he had occasion to work with the man who will be his new boss as of next week.

"Back when I was in the civil rights division," Eichner recalls, "I was director of the Disability Rights Project, and there was a problem of access [for people with disabilities] at Wendy's restaurants. A group of attorneys general worked on it with the [U.S. attorney general's] civil rights division" where Deval Patrick was employed at the time.

Eichner notes that every state has a protection and advocacy agency such as the DLC, which receives state, federal and private funding but is not part of the state or federal governments.

A nationwide search for his successor is under way, with the DLC's board of directors putting out the word it is looking for a candidate with "significant experience as a lawyer" among other qualifications.