THE CENTER FOR PUBLIC INTEREST LAW

CPIL Staff

Meet the staff of the Center for Public Interest Law

FULL-TIME STAFF

	Ellen P. Chapnick Dean of the Social Justice Program To make an appointment with Ellen, please e-mail jcoope2@law.columbia.edu. CNN Newscast: Watch Dean Chapnick discuss Hon. Sotomayor, President Obama's pick for U.S. Supreme Court.
	Akua Akyea Director of International and Summer Programs To make an appointment with Akua, click here.
	Tanya Greene Director of Domestic and Pro Bono Programs To make an appointment with Tanya, e-mail tanya.greene@law.columbia.edu
	Melissa Cardinali Assistant Director of International and Summer Programs To make an appointment with Melissa, click here.
	Abigail Meisel Assistant Director of Domestic and Pro Bono Programs
	Jane Cooper Program Coordinator

PART-TIME STAFF

Naomi Abraham CLS, ‘03
Naomi Abraham began her career as a social worker. Over the first 5 years of her career, she worked in child protection in Washington, DC. This work provided her with extensive experience in Family Court. She also served in an inter-agency and community-coordinated task force to redevelop the District of Columbia’s child welfare organization’s structure and response to children and families who have been, or are at risk for, neglect and abuse. She worked on a specially selected team to design a model Kinship Care program and as part of this team she served on a task force to redevelop the District of Columbia’s child welfare legislation in response to the Federal Adoption and Safe Families Act. Following her work in D.C., Naomi moved to New York and spent the year before law school working in the area of special education services for very young children. Following graduation from CLS, Naomi completed a Fellowship with the Center for Family Representation (CFR). Her work with CFR focused on the effects of disability on child welfare cases. Naomi also spent a year working part-time with CLS’s Environmental Law Clinic. Her work with the clinic included several environmental litigation matters. Naomi has strong interviewing skills, and extensive experience working with clients. Areas of counseling expertise: 1L counseling; family law/child advocacy; domestic public interest.
Contact: naomimabraham@gmail.com
Click here to make an appointment with Naomi.

Julie Dinnerstein, CLS, ‘95
Julie E. Dinnerstein serves as the Co-Director for Sanctuary for Families’ project at the Brooklyn Family Justice Center. She also teaches immigration law at the School of Professional Studies at the City University of New York (CUNY). Ms. Dinnerstein’s previous experience includes serving as the Deputy Director for Immigration Advocacy and Training at the New York Immigration Coalition, the Director of the Immigration Intervention Project at Sanctuary for Families, an associate at the law firm of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton and a law clerk to the Honorable Jack B. Weinstein in the Eastern District of New York. Areas of counseling expertise: 2L/3L counseling; post-graduate fellowship counseling.
To make an appointment with Julie, please e-mail her.
Contact: julie.dinnerstein@law.columbia.edu

Kara Finck, CLS ’01
Kara Finck is the Director of the Family Defense Project at Bronx Defenders, where she provides direct legal services to clients whose children have been removed from their care. Prior to this, Kara was a Skadden Fellow at The Door Legal Services, helping youth transition out of foster care, and she clerked for the District Court in Boston. While at CLS, Kara was the Executive Articles Editor of the Law Review, a clinic participant, and research and teaching assistants for several faculty members. She also interned in the Legal Aid Society’s Civil Division, litigating housing and welfare issues, and at the NAACP LDF, where she researched the application of international law and human rights treaties to the death penalty. She was also the Sidley Austin Brown & Wood Public Interest Fellow her second summer. Before law school, Kara was a project planner at Bronx Defenders, and worked for the Vera Institute of Justice around child welfare and juvenile justice issues. Expertise: project-based fellowships, youth, foster care, education, legal services, family law, workers’ rights, criminal justice, death penalty, civil rights. Areas of counseling expertise: 3L counseling; post-graduate fellowship counseling; domestic public interest.
Contact: krfinck@gmail.com
To make an appointment with Kara, please call her at work at 718-838-7839 or e-mail her.

Liz Mackay, CLS '04 (Photo coming soon!)
Government Counselor, Deputy Director-Division of Consumer Affairs, New Jersey Attorney General's Office
In January of this year, Liz Mackay became Deputy Director at the Division of Consumer Affairs in the Office of the Attorney General in New Jersey. The Division enforces New Jersey’s Consumer Fraud Act and Liz has oversight over the Office of Consumer Protection (e.g., auto dealerships, Internet frauds, regulated businesses), Charities and the Bureau of Securities, among other units. Liz had also worked at the Bureau of Securities as a Deputy Bureau Chief for two years after graduation in 2004. In between her positions on the Attorney General’s team, Liz worked as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Eastern District of New York for eighteen months. Law is a second career for Liz. She worked in turn as an analyst, as a portfolio manager and as an investment strategist for major firms in the financial industry. Areas of counseling expertise: government, 1L, 2L, 3L counseling.
Contact: meapal@aol.com
Click here to make an appointment with Liz.

Myrna Perez, CLS ‘03
Myrna Perez is Counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice, where she works on a variety of voting rights related issues, including efforts to restore the vote to people with felony convictions. Prior to joining the Center, she was the Civil Rights Fellow at Relman & Associates, a civil rights law firm in Washington, D.C. Following law school, she clerked for the Honorable Anita B. Brody of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and for the Honorable Julio M. Fuentes of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Prior to law school, she was a policy analyst for the United States General Accounting Office and covered a range of issues including housing and health care. Areas of counseling expertise: 2L, 3L and LL.M. counseling; domestic public interest.
To make an appointment with Myrna, please e-mail her.
Contact: myrnaperez@aya.yale.edu

Elisa Slattery, CLS ‘04
Elisa Slattery is the Legal Adviser for the Africa Program at the Center for Reproductive Rights. Her work focuses on promoting reproductive rights through national, regional, and international accountability mechanisms, and addressing the intersection of HIV and reproductive rights. Prior to joining the Center, she worked at the Federation of Women Lawyers in Kenya (FIDA Kenya) as a Third Millennium Foundation Human Rights Fellow. She is co-author of the recently-released Failure to Deliver: Violations of Women’s Human Rights in Kenyan Health Facilities, a joint report from the Center and FIDA Kenya. She has also worked as a consultant on worker's rights issues in Kenya and conducted comparative legal and human rights research on prisoners’ parental rights at the Brennan Center for Justice. Areas of counseling expertise: 2L, 3L, LL.M. counseling; international human rights.
To make an appointment with Elisa, please e-mail her.
Contact: elisalei@yahoo.com

Erica Smock, CLS ‘95
Erica Smock began her career as a law clerk to Judge Brody in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and to Judge Garth in the Third Circuit. After a year at the private firm O’Melveny & Myers, where she engaged in pro bono work around women’s rights issues, she worked for Legal Services of Oregon focusing on domestic violence and stalking cases. She then did litigation and legislative work at the Northwest Women's Law Center in Seattle for two years before serving as Legislative Counsel at the Center for Reproductive Rights in New York City. Expertise: women’s rights, reproductive rights, civil rights, legal services, impact litigation, and policy. Contact: ericasmock@comcast.net
Areas of counseling expertise: 1L counseling; womens' rights; domestic public interest.
Click here to make a counseling appointment with Erica. Generally, Erica has on-campus appointments on Fridays. If you're not available to meet on a Friday, please e-mail her directly. Please e-mail your resume to Erica before your meeting.

Maggie Williams, CLS ‘05
Maggie Williams currently works as Legislative Counsel for State Senator Eric Schneiderman. Before accepting the position in Albany, she was the Associate Director of the Women in Prison Project at the Correctional Association of New York. Her work focuses on legislative reform and advocacy to decrease the use of the criminal justice system and to make the system more responsive to the needs and rights of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people. Maggie joined the Correctional Association having just completed a five-month fellowship with MoveOn.org Political Action, a non-profit organization Maggie Williams is Legislative Counsel to NY State Senator Eric T. Schneiderman, focusing on a range of issues areas including criminal justice reform, voting rights, and domestic violence. Prior to her current position, she was the Associate Director of the Women in Prison Project at the Correctional Association of New York. While at the Correctional Association, Maggie developed legislation and engaged in advocacy to decrease the use of the criminal justice system and make the system more responsive to the needs and rights of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people. Upon graduating from law school, Maggie received an Open Society Institute Community Fellowship to found the Voter Enfranchisement Project (VEP) at The Bronx Defenders, an effort to increase the political participation of people who have been through the criminal justice system in New York City. While at Columbia, Maggie co-founded Impact, a national nonpartisan network of law students organized to ensure the integrity of the voting process. She also interned with the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and the California Appellate Project. Areas of counseling expertise: 1L counseling; criminal justice; domestic public interest.
Click here to make a counseling appointment with Maggie.
Contact: maggiedwilliams@gmail.com

Click here to make an appointment with a part-time counselor, Akua Akyea or Melissa Cardinali.