Breaking the Simulation: Reasserting Human Reality in Disability Adjudication – 2026 Spring National Conference – Track II (Presented by National Organization of Social Security Claimants’ Representatives)

Stephen Sloan, Esq., Attorney | Osterhout Berger Daley Law Firm

Stephen Sloan is a Social Security disability attorney at Osterhout Berger Daley Law Firm with extensive experience at both the administrative and federal court levels of review. He has represented clients in hundreds of administrative hearings and has briefed cases at the district court level in every appellate circuit outside of the D.C. Circuit, a geographic and jurisdictional reach that is exceptionally rare among disability practitioners. He has also argued cases before the Third, Sixth, Seventh, and Ninth Circuit Courts of Appeals. Stephen served as the 2019–2020 chair of the Chicago Bar Association’s Social Security Committee, co-chaired NOSSCR’s NextGen Committee in 2025, and has been named a Super Lawyers Rising Star every year since 2018.

• Education & Credentials

Stephen is a licensed attorney whose credentials are defined by an extraordinary breadth of federal court experience across virtually every appellate circuit in the country. His record of briefing Social Security disability cases at the district court level in every appellate circuit outside the D.C. Circuit, combined with his oral argument experience in the Third, Sixth, Seventh, and Ninth Circuits, reflects a depth of appellate practice that few disability attorneys anywhere can match. His annual Super Lawyers Rising Star recognition since 2018 provides consistent independent validation of his professional standing among his peers.

• Recognition & Leadership

Stephen has been named a Super Lawyers Rising Star every year since 2018, a peer-nominated distinction that reflects sustained recognition of his talent and professional impact over nearly a decade. He served as chair of the Chicago Bar Association’s Social Security Committee in 2019–2020 and as co-chair of NOSSCR’s NextGen Committee in 2025, demonstrating leadership at both the local and national levels of the disability bar. His oral argument experience across four federal circuit courts and his district court briefing record spanning virtually every circuit in the country reflect a practitioner whose recognition is grounded in a genuinely exceptional appellate litigation record.

• Professional Involvement

Stephen is deeply engaged in the disability advocacy professional community at both the local and national levels. He chaired the Chicago Bar Association’s Social Security Committee in 2019–2020 and co-chaired NOSSCR’s NextGen Committee in 2025, a committee focused on developing the next generation of Social Security claimants’ representatives. He has participated in speaking engagements for numerous organizations, sharing his federal court expertise with practitioners across the country. His involvement across bar associations, NOSSCR leadership, and national speaking reflects a commitment to the profession that runs alongside his active and expansive litigation practice.

• Experience

Stephen Sloan has built one of the most expansive federal court disability litigation practices in the country. At Osterhout Berger Daley Law Firm, he has represented clients in hundreds of administrative hearings while simultaneously developing a federal court practice that spans district court briefing in every appellate circuit outside the D.C. Circuit and oral argument in the Third, Sixth, Seventh, and Ninth Circuits. This combination of
administrative depth and appellate breadth is rare in the disability bar and positions him as one of the field’s most versatile and accomplished federal litigators. His Chicago Bar Association Social Security Committee chairmanship, his NOSSCR NextGen Committee co-chairmanship, and his unbroken string of Super Lawyers Rising Star recognitions since 2018 round out a career defined by both individual excellence and sustained investment in the disability advocacy profession.

I. Breaking the Simulation: Reasserting Human Reality in Disability Adjudication | 2:45pm – 4:00pm

The Social Security disability adjudication process often operates on illusory premises; treating complex human conditions as checkboxes, prioritizing volume over accuracy, and relying on vocational and medical frameworks that rarely reflect the real world. This session pulls back the curtain on how these systemic distortions arise, from the roles and incentives of DDS reviewers to the economics of vocational testimony and the pressures faced by ALJs. Attendees will explore practical strategies for inserting a touch more of the real-world context into an increasingly abstract process, through advocacy, narrative framing, and evidence development that challenge the “gamified” logic of adjudication. Ultimately, this discussion aims to restore what the system too often forgets: the reality of disability and the humanity of those it serves.