Law360 Names MTO “Legal Lions of the Week” for Lyft Second Circuit Win  

Munger, Tolles & Olson was named to Law360’s “Legal Lions of the Week” column after the Second Circuit affirmed a judgment in Lyft’s favor in a class action brought by a disability-rights nonprofit organization based in Westchester County, New York. The plaintiffs alleged that Lyft engaged in discrimination by failing to provide access to transportation in wheelchair-accessible vehicles (WAV) outside of the nine cities where Lyft currently offers such access. On appeal, the plaintiffs narrowed their claim to focus on Westchester County.  

On August 27, 2026, in Lowell et al. v. Lyft Inc., a three-judge Second Circuit panel affirmed the September 2024 judgment, agreeing with the district court that the plaintiffs’ proposed modifications to Lyft’s policies were not required by the Americans with Disabilities Act. The panel rejected plaintiffs’ argument that the district court applied the wrong burden of proof, holding that plaintiffs bear the burden of persuasion to show that their proposed modifications to Lyft’s policies would effectively accommodate class members’ disabilities. The proposed policy changes included displaying Lyft’s “Access” mode in Westchester, polling drivers about whether they owned wheelchair-accessible vehicles, cross-dispatching WAV drivers and offering driver incentives — none of which, individually or in combination, were shown to be effective in creating on-demand transportation in wheelchair-accessible vehicles.   

The MTO team representing Lyft includes Jeffrey Wu and Elaine Goldenberg.  

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