Lawyer swaps pay for satisfaction

John Rittelmeyer left private practice to be an advocate for disability rights

John Rittelmeyer feels good about the late-in-career job change he made last year. As director of legal services for Disability Rights North Carolina, Rittelmeyer, 52, spends his days advocating for people who can't always speak for themselves. He makes half the money he did as a lawyer in private practice, but in that world, he says, job satisfaction often comes one client at a time.

At Disability Rights, Rittelmeyer's courtroom victories are more sweeping.

On Sept. 25, Rittelmeyer successfully argued to delay the move of patients from Dorthea Dix Hospital in Raleigh to Central Regional Hospital in Butner. The state Department of Health and Human Services had hoped to begin moving Dix patients to the new mental facility Oct. 1.

But with concerns about security, staffing shortages and technology at the new facility, Disability Rights won a temporary restraining order that kept the patients at Dix. Disability Rights is not fighting to keep Dix open, Rittelmeyer says, but wants to be sure Central Regional is safe for patients.

Last week, the state agreed to keep the restraining order in place. The moving of patients from Dix has been put on indefinite hold.

Unlike some courtroom litigators, Rittelmeyer cannot say that he always knew that he wanted to be an attorney. And unlike some advocates for the disabled, he can't say that he always wanted to fight for their rights.

His daughter Martha helped him find that second purpose. Martha, 19, was born with a rare genetic disorder that left her profoundly retarded. She cannot speak and needs full-time care.

Yet it was Martha who led him toward his second career.

Rittelmeyer served more than a decade on the board of Carolina Legal Assistance, the previous incarnation of Disability Rights North Carolina. Last year, he turned a passion into his career and signed on to lead the group's legal team.

"I was making really good money at the private practice of law," he says, "but I really wasn't finding a whole lot of satisfaction in it."

Rittelmeyer says he always has tried to keep an even keel, not getting too energized or too down in emotional situations. He owns up, though, to lacking patience in years past.

"Martha," he says, "certainly has taught me a lot about being patient."

It shows.

Rittelmeyer's personality is well-suited for his job, said Adonis Brown of Durham. Brown, who was born without arms, serves on the board of Disability Rights.

"He's even tempered. You don't see him lose his cool. You might feel it," says Brown, laughing, "but you don't see it."

Long path to law

Rittelmeyer lives in Cary but grew up in McLean, Va., the son of a Georgetown University professor. He graduated from Georgetown with a bachelor's degree in psychology.

From there, it was a long road to lawyering.

After college, Rittelmeyer spent several years working in a used-record store in Washington. Then, on the suggestion of a friend who worked in computers, he took a five-month course at a local technology school and became a computer programmer.

But a different friend started him on the path to law. A neighbor with whom he played cards had just taken the law school admissions exam and was done with his test-prep materials. He knocked on the door one day and handed them over.

The neighbor told him: "You ought to do this."

The materials sat around the apartment for a while before he cracked open a book and saw a section on puzzles. Part of the LSAT uses puzzles to gauge the test-taker's logic skills.

"You've got to be kidding me," Rittelmeyer remembers thinking. "This is what you do to get into law school -- you do puzzles? So I snuck away one day and took the LSAT. I didn't tell my wife."