Ellen P. Chapnick
Ellen P. Chapnick is the Dean for Social Justice Initiatives and a Lecturer-in-Law. As Dean, her responsibilities include development and implementation of projects that will further Columbia's excellence in preparing the public interest, government and human rights lawyers of the future. She also teaches the Externship on Pro Bono Practice and Design. Prior to Columbia, she was a federal litigator at Wolf Popper Ross Wolf & Jones, where, among other matters, she represented class plaintiffs in In re Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Litigation, for which she and her co-counsel shared TLPJ's 1995 Trial Lawyer of the Year Award. She also had been a staff attorney at the Puerto Rican Institute for Civil Rights in San Juan and at various labor unions. Dean Chapnick’s recent pro bono work includes serving as: President of Legal Services for New York-Bronx; chair of the Association of American Law Schools' Section on Pro Bono and Public Service Opportunities; and president of the Center for Constitutional Rights. Dean Chapnick has received the Association of American Law Schools' Father Robert F. Drinan award, Sanctuary for Families' Abely Pro Bono Achievement Award, Legal Aid Society of New York's award for outstanding pro bono publico service and the Pro Bono Students America award for best Law School public interest program. She is the author of several articles and the Access to the Courts chapter in the American Bar Association's
The Law of Environmental Justice.
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Robert Greenleaf
Research Scholar
Robert Greenleaf joined the National State Attorneys General Program as a Postdoctoral Research Scholar in the summer of 2010. He initially worked on the Tobacco Initiative and on the Labor Project that resulted in a report that was published in April of 2011. He currently works on the Health Care Reform Initiative concerning the role of Attorneys General in health reform.
Greenleaf received his B.A. from Connecticut College and J.D. from the University of Maine. He is admitted to practice law in New York and New Jersey.
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Frances Laviscount
Program Coordinator
Frances Laviscount joined the National State Attorneys General Program as Program Coordinator in September of 2011.
Previously, Frances worked as a project management consultant and product marketing analyst at Pro Bono Net. She was also an equity analyst at US Trust, a wealth management firm in New York City.
Frances received her BA in Finance from Baruch College, Zicklin School of Business.
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Cindy M. Lott
Senior Counsel
Lead Counsel, Charities Project
Cindy M. Lott serves as Senior Counsel to the National State Attorneys General Program at Columbia Law School, and within that Program serves as lead counsel to the Charities Regulation and Oversight Project as well as projects in the area of public health. The National State Attorneys General Program provides a nonpartisan resource to state attorneys general in fulfilling enforcement responsibilities and policy priorities, facilitates communication among attorneys general, and institutionalizes the dialogue between attorneys general, a spectrum of regulated communities and legal scholars specializing in various related substantive areas of policy and enforcement. Lott is a frequent speaker at national conferences in the areas of charities and nonprofit state regulation and governance. In 2006 and 2007, she was a Lecturer in Law at Columbia Law School, co-teaching an advanced research seminar on state attorneys general and their role in state policymaking.
In 2013, Lott is teaching a graduate capstone course at the Indiana University School of Public and Environmental affairs; akin to a clinical offering within the policy school, a capstone course is taken by MPA students in the final semester of their degree program and is designed to introduce graduating students to real-time work for clients on a multi-component policy project. In 2008 and 2009, Lott was a visiting clinical professor at Indiana University Maurer School of Law, where she was the developer and director of the Nonprofit Legal Clinic, a clinic focused on the nature of general counsel and transactional practice within the context of nonprofits. Previously, Lott’s private practice focused on legal strategy for national advocacy groups and non-profit organizations, particularly with respect to state attorney general, non-profit, and state policy issues.
Lott served as Chief Counsel to the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston and was Deputy Counsel to the 2000 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles; in the capacity of general counsel she served as a senior staff member and direct advisor to the CEO, overseeing all aspects of legal and compliance issues. Lott has worked at large firms in several major cities in the areas of employment, business litigation and compliance. She also served as Chief Counsel for Advisory Services in the Indiana Attorney General's office, where she oversaw the legal counsel for advising of state agencies as well as all contracts for the state of Indiana; prior to that position she served as Section Chief for Administrative and Regulatory Litigation in that office. Her areas of practice have included constitutional, administrative and regulatory, contracts, business fraud, compliance, and employment litigation and advisory issues.
Lott is a member of the national board for the Better Business Bureau's Wise Giving Alliance; she also serves as a member of the Steering Committee for the formation of the new School of Public Health at Indiana University-Bloomington. She is currently serving in her third term as a board member for Volunteers in Medicine of Monroe County, a free medical clinic for the uninsured which she helped found in 2007.
Lott is a 1993 graduate of the Yale Law School and clerked for the United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit. She earned her B.A in Comparative Literature at Indiana University in 1989 and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. She is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia, Indiana and Massachusetts.
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James E. Tierney
Director, National State Attorneys General Program
Lecturer-in Law, Columbia Law School
James E. Tierney is the Program Director of the National State Attorneys General Program, at Columbia Law School, where he has also taught as a Lecturer-in-Law since the fall of 2000. In addition to his teaching at Columbia, Tierney is a Lecturer at Harvard Law School where he teaches a course on the role of state attorneys general. He has also taught at Boston College Law School, Northeastern Law School and the University of Maine School of Law.
Mr. Tierney served as the Attorney General of Maine from 1980 until 1990. During his ten years as Attorney General of Maine, Mr. Tierney played an active role in the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) and has instructed newly elected state Attorneys General on the effective performance of their office for many years. Mr. Tierney has served as a Special Prosecutor in Florida, Pennsylvania, Minnesota and Vermont and, on behalf of NAAG, has authored an analysis of the operations of state grand jury practice throughout the United States. He travels regularly to visit in offices of attorney general most recently in Colorado, Indiana, Massachusetts, Idaho, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Illinois, California and Washington. He also regularly conducts ethics seminars for incumbent attorneys general and their staffs.
Tierney has served on the Board of both the American Judicature Society and was a member of the Board of Commentators of the Courtroom Television Network where he appeared regularly as a guest. In April of 2006, Professor Tierney was selected as the Public Interest Professor of the Year. This award, which is given to the faculty member or administrator who has most supported and inspired a significant portion of the public interest law student community, is selected by a vote of students.
Tierney is married to Maine author Elizabeth Strout. He has five children and eight grandchildren.
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