NLS' Advocacy Staff
*Jim Breslauer*, Advocacy Coordinator
Jim has more than 25 years experience in legal services, handling individual cases and complex class actions while serving as a mentor, trainer and supervisor for less experienced staff at NLS and throughout the region. A graduate of Penn State University, Jim has served with legal services organizations in Pennsylvania and with Merrimack Valley Legal Services in Lowell before coming to NLS. At NLS, Jim handles complex litigation, focusing on access to public benefits and welfare and serves as the principle supervisor for the program's legal advocacy staff.
*Sheila Casey*, Exective Director
Sheila was appointed NLS' Executive Director in July, 2006; she joined the NLS staff in 1998 as a Staff Attorney, practice housing law and homelessness prevention; she later developed NLS' employment practice, working with low wage workers to improve working conditions as well as to begin a Worker Justice Center in collaboration with other groups in the greater Lawrence area. Sheila received her Law Degree from Western New England College School of Law, and also attended the University of Massachusetts at Amherst where she received her Bachelors degree and Masters in Public Administration. Before coming to NLS, Sheila served as Associate Director of the Student Legal Services Office at the University of Massachusetts and as a paralegal specializing is disability benefits with Western Mass. Legal Services.
*Fairlie Dalton*, Staff Attorney, Housing
Fairlie came to NLS after graduating from Harvard Law School and has been an NLS attorney specializing in housing advocacy for more than 15 years. A leader in the housing advocacy community in Massachusetts and a recognized expert in the field, Fairlie is a principle trainer for major MCLE and legal services landlord-tenant trainings and an author or co-author of many publications on housing rights and remedies. At NLS Fairlie represents low income northern Essex county tenants facing eviction, unsafe housing conditions and other illegal housing practices to retain their housing, prevent their homelessness and ensure that their living conditions are safe and secure.
*John Ford*, Director, NLS' Elder Law Project
John is a nationally known elder law practitioner who has served as the head of NLS' elder law services for over 30 years. He has been the recipient of awards and recognitions too numerous to mention, including the Mass Bar Foundations public interest advocacy award amd national advocacy awards presented by the National Legal Aid and Defender Association and American Bar Association to a distinquished legal services elder law practitioner. John is the immediate past President of the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys and has served on many national Commissions and Boards. He also edited the "Guide for Elders," the principle self help resource available to Massachusetts seniors, teaches regularly at the Gerontology Institute at the University of Massachusetts and is a frequent contributor to MCLE publications and programs on elder law issues. John received his legal education at Boston College Law School.
*Laura Gallant*, Staff Attorney, Public Benefits
Laura has been a specialist in public benefits eligibiliity and health law for NLS for more than 10 years. She is a graduate of Northeastern University School of Law and before coming to NLS practiced with Legal Services for Cape Cod and the Islands. She is the recipient of many local and regional awards for her tireless work for low income residents of Essex County. Her work with the Lynn Health Task Force to develop a model health care system in the region for low income and uninsured people has received national recognition. Laura is a truly community centered advocate who serves as a leader and facilitator of many different community processes designed to improve our clients lives. She is a Board member and/or officer of many local helping organizations and institutions including Lynn Economic Opportunity, the Cambodian Community of Massachusetts and the Lynn Health Task Force.
*Jennifer Hayden*, Staff Attorney, Housing
Jennifer is one of NLS' newest advocacy staff member. After interning with NLS during law school at New England School of Law, Jennifer joined NLS as a Staff Attorney candidate (awaiting results of the Bar Exam) in July of 2002. She since received the good news that she successfully passed the bar. Her practice is focused on tenants rights and other housing matters for residents of greater Lynn.
*Emily Herzig*, Staff Paralegal, Public Benefits and Disability
Emily has been a paralegal at NLS since 1986, coming to NLS from the paralegal certificate program at North Shore Community College. Emily's practice is focused on eligibility for SSI and Social Security disability and on other public welfare matters, especially access to shelter and assistance for the homeless. Emily is also a leader in our local community on issues of AIDS, substance abuse treatment and health care access, serving as the Chair of the North Shore AIDS Collaborative, as a member of the Lynn Stop Heroin Overdose Task Force and as a member of the Steering Committee of the Lynn Health Task Force.
*Jennifer Juste*, Staff Attorney, Family Law and Immigration
Jennifer joined the staff of NLS in 1999 after graduating from the University of New Mexico School of Law and then serving as a clerk in the honors program at the United States Dept. of Justice Executive Office of Immigration Review where she clerked for an immigration judge. At NLS, Jennifer creates and operates programs designed to assist individuals with family law problems to learn their rights and act on them. She operates a pro se divorce clinic for individuals seeking largely uncontested divorces, coordinates and staffs a telephone advice service for family law callers, and represents victims of domestic abuse in complex family court matters designed to ensure their continued safety and economic security. She also assists immigrant victims of abuse with related immigration matters including access to VAWA self-petitions, U-Visas and related immigration programs.
*Patricia Levesh*, Staff Attorney, Essex County Family Legal Aid Center
Pat, a graduate of New England School of Law, has had a distinguished career with several legal services programs in Massachusetts including Cambridge and Somerville Legal Services and Greater Boston Legal Services before joining NLS last year to head up its new family violence legal assistance center in Salem, Massachusetts. She is the author of several legal education publications and a frequent contributor to MCLE family law programs and is a well known leader in the area's domestic violence service community as a member of the Board of Directors of Help for Abused Women and their Children
*Henriette Perkins*, Staff Attorney and Pro Bono Coordinator
Henriette guides NLS' volunteer attorney programs while also serving as a staff attorney specializing in family law and domestic violence matters. She is a graduate of the Boston College Law School. Prior to joining NLS, Henriette served as the Advocacy Director at Help for Abused Women and their Children in Salem. Henriette's responsibilities at NLS including recruitment and training of the program's many volunteer private attorneys, screening and referral of cases for volunteers and development of the program's volunteer resources including a periodic newsletters and CLE programs.
*Marc Potvin*, Staff Attorney, Community Lawyering and Preservation and Development of Affordable Housing
Marc's role at NLS is unique among area legal programs and helps distinquish NLS as a truly client centered organization. Marc's job, broadly defined, is to help any group of low income people in our service area who have an idea about how to improve their community or the neighborhood they live in by building their power and voice and the power of their neighbors to effect change. Whether helping form a new tenant's association, housing development corporation or neighborhood association, helping existing organizations grow, secure funding and negotiate with public officials or helping a group of tenants bring a lawsuit to preserve the affordability of their housing, Marc offers our low income clients a general resource to help them control their own destiny. Marc's own prior experience is perfectly suited to this effort. Before entering law school at Northeastern, he served as Executive Director of North Shore Community Action Programs and earlier as a community organizer and activist in western Massachusetts.
*Michael Raabe*, Staff Attorney, Family Law
Since graduating from New England College of Law with his JD, Michael has been a staff attorney at NLS. Until recently he specialized almost exclusively in welfare and public benefits law but recently shifted his focus to domestic violence and family law. He has been a leader in the public benefits advocacy community in Massachusetts for many years, bringing a number of groundbreaking lawsuits that have reformed significant aspects of the welfare system in the state of Massachusetts. He now turns his considerable skill and attention to the needs of our battered clients and their children.
*Catherine Willard*, Staff Paralegal, Disability Benefits and Elder Law
Cathy has been a distinquished and expert NLS advocate for many years for persons with disabilities seeking social security and SSI assistance. More recently, Cathy began working with our elder clients as a member of NLS' elder law project, assisting clients facing financial exploitation, consumer fraud, nursing home abuse and other matters. Her expertise in both fields is a tremendous asset to our clients. Cathy also serves on the Board of Advisors of the Paralegal Studies program at North Shore Community College.
