Staff
For staff contact information, please click here.
Lynn M. Kelly, Executive Director of the City Bar Justice Center
Ms. Kelly is an expert in designing and operating effective civil legal delivery systems to low income clients with a 25 year career including leading MFY Legal Services for nine years, serving as a litigator and manager with the Civil Division of The Legal Aid Society and teaching litigation skills at Fordham, NYU and New York Law School's clinical law programs. While Executive Director at MFY Legal Services, Ms. Kelly successfully managed a major restructuring that freed MFY from federal funding restrictions and created innovative new programs to serve unmet legal needs. Ms. Kelly serves on the Board of Advisors for the Stein Center for Law and Ethics at Fordham Law School. She was recognized with an Outstanding Women of the Bar Award and a Conspicuous Service Award by the NY County Lawyers' Association and she has been profiled by her college and law school. She is a frequent lecturer at CLE and professional development seminars on expanding pro bono and civil legal services. Ms. Kelly is a graduate of Mount Holyoke College and the New York University School of Law.
Alice Morey, Managing Attorney of the City Bar Justice Center
Alice Morey has been Managing Attorney since 2001. Prior to joining the Justice Center, Ms. Morey was a faculty member at the CUNY School of Law where she taught in the areas of family law, elder law, public benefits and administrative remedies and co-directed the law school's Workfare Advocacy Project. Ms. Morey also served for four years as Associate Director of the law school's Continuing Legal Education, Training and Consultation Program, advising administrators and staff of state and city agencies on organizational and professional development. Ms. Morey began her legal career as a law clerk for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, was a staff attorney with the Juvenile Rights Division of the Legal Aid Society, taught in Hofstra School of Law's clinical programs and was a staff attorney with the Affirmative Litigation Division of the New York City Corporation Counsel's Office. Ms. Morey serves on the Board of Directors of Project FAIR, of which she was a founding member. She is a graduate of Barnard College and Hofstra School of Law.
Carol H. Bockner, Director of Pro Bono Initiatives
Ms. Bockner began working with the City Bar Fund in 1995 as the Program Coordinator for the Community Outreach Law Program. In this position she was responsible for the Cancer Advocacy Project, the Guardian Ad Litem in Housing Court Project and the Elderlaw Project. In 2000 she became the Director of the Public Service Network, helping volunteer attorneys identify their skills and interests and locate volunteer opportunities, as well as facilitating the relationships between volunteer attorneys and non-profit organizations. She also served as Director of the City Bar's September 11th Legal Initiative and the Hurricane Katrina Initiative. After two years, Ms. Bockner became the Director of Pro Bono Initiatives, where she has been very active not only in overseeing all special legal initiatives but also in assisting law firms and corporate law departments in developing and expanding their pro bono programs. In 2007, she designed and created the Veterans Assistance Program, a legal project to assist veterans in accessing disability benefits. Ms. Bockner is a graduate of Lake Erie College.
Lynn Armentrout, Director of the Foreclosure Project
Ms. Armentrout has more than 20 years of experience in helping tenants and consumers, starting with her work as a staff attorney at the Legal Aid Society, where she specialized in housing and consumer law. Ms. Armentrout also held a private civil litigation practice in which she specialized in representing tenants and consumers. In one of her most recent cases she successfully sued operators of a real estate scam involving a notorious predatory lender. Ms. Armentrout has numerous reported decisions to her credit in matters ranging from unemployment insurance to housing discrimination, and won a jury verdict in a case arising under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act. Ms. Armentrout is a graduate of Skidmore College and New York University School of Law.
Akira Arroyo, Director of the Neighborhood Entrepreneur Law Project
Ms. Arroyo has been with the New York City Bar Association since 1995, initially serving as Program Coordinator for the Robert B. McKay Community Outreach Law Program of the New York City Bar. In this position she was responsible for the Immigrant Women & Children's Project, the Refugee Assistance Project, the Community Legal Immigration Clinic and the Housing Court Summer Associates Project. She also led the Justice Center's 9/11 Small Business Initiative, which coordinated the provision of legal services to small businesses affected by 9/11. Ms. Arroyo speaks regularly at various small business events throughout the city and maintains an active caseload while providing supervision and support to a network of volunteer attorneys. She is a recipient of a two-year Equal Justice Works Fellowship with which she began the Neighborhood Entrepreneur Law Project at the City Bar Justice Center. Ms. Arroyo is a graduate of the City University of New York-Hunter College and Fordham University School of Law.
Vivienne Duncan, Director of the Elderlaw Project
Ms. Duncan has been a practicing lawyer for 17 years. Prior to working at the City Bar Justice Center, Ms. Duncan worked at the United Nations in New York where she focused on improving the negotiating capabilities of developing countries wishing to regulate access to their natural resources, organized training workshops for government and private sector officials and developed projects to support regional co-operation in the financial sectors of small economy countries. She also worked as in-house counsel for the Platinum Protection Group in the U.K., where she was responsible for all legal matters concerning the company and for the United Nations Program on Transnational Corporations. Ms. Duncan is a member of the New York City Bar's Committee on Legal Problems of the Aging. She is a graduate of the University of Sussex (U.K.) and received an LL.M from University College London (U.K.).
Jennifer H. Kim, Director of the Refugee Assistance Project
Before coming to the City Bar in 2003, Ms. Kim was a litigation associate at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP. She received her J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1999 and graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University in 1995. She is currently a member of the NY City Bar's Committee on Immigration and Nationality Law. She is also Vice President of the Board of Directors of YKASEC - Empowering the Korean American Community, a Flushing-based non-profit that seeks to bring about social justice through immigrant rights/advocacy and empower immigrant communities through civic participation.
John McManus, Director of the Consumer Bankruptcy Project and Administrator of the Bankruptcy Pro Bono Panel
Prior to joining the Justice Center, Mr. McManus served as the Staff Attorney at The Legal Aid Society's Bronx Neighborhood Office and as Attorney-in-Charge of The Legal Aid Society's Rockaway and Queens Neighborhood Offices, practicing in the areas of housing, governmental benefits, family, consumer and bankruptcy law. He also was the Private Attorney Involvement Coordinator and the Coordinator of the Consumer Law Unit of The Legal Aid Society's Civil Division. As a member of the City Bar's Committee on Bankruptcy & Corporate Reorganization Mr. McManus oversaw the production and publication of a bankruptcy guidebook for consumers, Personal Bankruptcy: Is It Right For You?, which is distributed in English and Spanish by The Bankruptcy Courts of the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York to debtors seeking information about their rights. Mr. McManus is a graduate of Fordham University School of Law.
Leah Margulies, Director of LawHelp
Ms. Margulies has been the Director of LawHelp since 2006. Her legal career has given her broad experience in law and public policy advocacy for projects promoting human rights, corporate accountability, public health, environment and sustainable development, and women's economic and social rights. She previously held a private practice, where she consulted with governments and advocacy organizations, including UNICEF, the National Academy Foundation and the Women's Environment and Development Organization. Ms. Margulies also worked with UNICEF as a Legal Advisor for their Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative, was a founding member of the International Baby Foods Action Network and the Founder and Chairperson of the Infant Formula Action Coalition. Ms. Margulies is a graduate of Boston University and Brooklyn Law School.
Lisa C. Pearlstein, Director of the Legal Clinic for the Homeless
Prior to joining the City Bar Justice Center, Ms. Pearlstein was the Senior Coordinating Attorney for Brooklyn Legal Services' Government Benefits Unit. In her eleven years with the Services, Ms. Pearlstein developed and implemented an extensive public benefit community education project, won favorable rulings for more than 1,000 indigent New Yorkers and their families and obtained decisions directing the City to pay over $500,000 in benefits to low-income families. As Staff Attorney for the Group Housing Unit with the Legal Services, she represented low-income tenant associations in housing court proceedings. Ms. Pearlstein is a graduate of Cornell University and Brooklyn Law School.
Suzanne Tomatore, Director of the Immigrant Women & Children Project
Ms. Tomatore has trained community-based organizations, health-care providers, as well as law enforcement and government officials, including international delegates from the U.S. Department of State International Visitors Program, on human trafficking. She has lectured across the United States and abroad, including Canada, Venezuela, and the Philippines. In addition, Ms. Tomatore has taught immigration law at the City University of New York. Prior to joining the City Bar, she was the recipient of the Open Society Institute Community Fellowship for implementing and directing the Immigrant Community Domestic Violence Project at City University of New York School of Law. Ms. Tomatore is a graduate of the CUNY Baccalaureate Program and the CUNY School of Law.
Libby Vazquez, Director of the Legal Hotline
Prior to joining the Justice Center, Ms. Vazquez was a Staff Attorney at inMotion Inc., where she provided legal representation to women facing family, matrimonial and immigration issues, provided mentoring to volunteer attorneys, and conducted outreach programs to provide legal knowledge and access to unrepresented women. Prior to this, Ms. Vazquez also worked as a Legal Assistant for The Legal Aid Society in its Harlem Neighborhood Office and as the Director and Court Appointed Mediator for the Family Court Mediation Project. Ms. Vazquez is a graduate of Hofstra University and Fordham University School of Law.