Edward Lynch; Lawyer and Advocate for Disabled

Edward J. Lynch, 62, a civil rights lawyer who championed the rights of people with disabilities. Lynch’s battles on behalf of the disabled began in 1982, when he alleged that the Department of Education illegally fired him from its office of civil rights. He said the department did not accommodate his epilepsy. Lynch triumphed in 1988 when the Merit System Protection Board ordered the Education Department to reinstate him with full back pay. As a lawyer for the department in the early 1970s, Lynch drafted employment provisions for the landmark Americans With Disabilities Act and earlier had worked on regulations for the Federal Rehabilitation Act. He retired earlier this year as a lawyer and adviser. On Sept. 9 in the crash of an ultra-light airplane he was piloting near Camp Springs, Md.