Advisory Board

The work of the Project is overseen by an Advisory Board of distinguished professionals from academia and the legal profession.

Board Co-Chair, Brenda Bratton Blom
University of Maryland School of Law

Brenda Bratton Blom received her B. A. in 1989 and her J.D. in 1993 from the University of Baltimore. She received her M.P.S. in 1993 and her Ph.D. in 2002 from the University of Maryland Baltimore County. Professor Blom has worked in public interest law firms since graduating from law school, first, as a staff attorney for the Community Law Center, then as Executive Director of Empowerment Legal Services Program. Joining the Clinical Law Office of the University of Maryland School of Law in the summer of 1998 was a logical next step. She became the Director of Clinical Programs at Maryland in the Spring of 2003. Her interests include nonprofit and community organization activity in community and economic development, as well as the legal policies which promote and prohibit such activities. (Back to Top)

Jeffrey Brand
University of San Francisco School of Law

Dean of the University of San Francisco School of Law, Jeffrey Brand received his A.B. (1966) and his J.D. (1969) from UC Berkeley. He has served as a Public Defender for Contra Costa County, California, and as an Administrative Law Judge for the Agricultural Labor Relations Board. He was a partner in the Oakland firm of Farnsworth, Saperstein and Brand, specializing in employment discrimination litigation and employment law. He was founder and formerly Editor-in-Chief of the Federal Litigator. Dean Brand, who teaches Evidence, Civil Procedure, Remedies and Constitutional Law, is also the Chairman of the USF Center for Law and Global Justice.
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Jeanne Charn
Harvard Law School

Jeanne Charn – Lecturer in Law, Harvard Law School; Director of the Bellow-Sacks Access to Civil Legal Services Project; Associate Director for Civil Clinical Programs; Director of the Hale and Dorr Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School. B.A., Michigan, 1967; J.D. Harvard Law School, 1970.

From 1970-1973, Ms. Charn was a legal aid lawyer. In 1973, Ms. Charn was appointed Assistant Dean for Clinical Programs at Harvard Law School and worked with Professor Gary Bellow to develop Harvard’s clinical program. In 1975, she was appointed Lecturer in Law and continues to teach “The Lawyering Process," an introduction to professional ethics and civil practice; “Delivery of Legal Services” a course that explores approaches to making legal services more widely available in the US; and, with Professor Duncan Kennedy, “Housing Law and Policy."

In 1979, Ms. Charn and Professor Bellow established a clinical practice center, now the Hale and Dorr Legal Services Center. The Hale and Dorr Center is the largest clinical center at Harvard. It is a laboratory for both (i) approaches to service learning; and (ii) experiments in the delivery of legal high quality and cost effective legal services. In addition to directing the Hale and Dorr Center, Ms. Charn directs the Bellow-Sacks Access to Civil Legal Services Project. The Bellow-Sacks Project hosts seminars and produces papers exploring ways of making civil legal services more widely available. (Back to Top)

David Condliffe
Rutgers School of Law-Newark
Center for Law and Justice

David C. Condliffe is the director of development at Rutgers School of Law - Newark. He holds a B.A. from New York University, an M.P.A. from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, a J.D. from Rutgers-Newark, and a C.F.R.E. from the Association of Fundraising Professionals. Previously, he was senior adviser for U.S. Programs at the Open Society Institute, executive director of the Drug Policy Foundation, executive director of the Coro Foundation, director of New York City's Office of Drug Abuse Policy, vice president and general counsel of Children's Television Workshop, a corporate and securities lawyer at Debevoise & Plimpton and Greenbaum, Wolf & Ernst, and a member of New York City Mayor John Lindsay's staff. He is a member of the board of the Havens Relief Fund Society and of the executive committee of the Institutional Advancement Section of the Association of American Law Schools. (Back to Top)

Stuart Deutsch
Rutgers School of Law-Newark
Center for Law and Justice

Stuart L. Deutsch has been dean of Rutgers Law School-Newark since the summer of 1999. He received his J.D. from Yale Law School in 1969, and his L.L.M. from Harvard Law School in 1974, where he was a Fellow in Law and the Humanities. He is a 1966 graduate of the University of Michigan. Formerly a professor of law, co-director of the Program in Environmental and Energy Law, and founding director of the Institute for Science, Law and Technology at the Chicago-Kent College of Law at the Illinois Institute of Technology, he also served as interim dean in 1996-97, and as associate dean for academic affairs and associate dean for interdisciplinary programs. Deutsch’s expertise is in the fields of environmental law, land use, and urban development. He is the author of Deutsch’s Illinois Environmental Laws Annotated and for 18 years was co-editor of Land Use and Environmental Law Review. Dean Deutsch has also been a visiting faculty member at the University of Illinois College of Law; an associate professor at the University of Santa Clara School of Law, where he began his teaching career; and practiced law in New York City.

He is a member of several bar and national organization committees concerning the legal profession, ethics, diversity, and legal education, including the New Jersey Supreme Court’s Commission on Professionalism; the New Jersey Institute for Continuing Legal Education; and the American Bar Association’s Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar Technology Committee, of which he is vice-chair. He also has worked with the ABA’s Central and Eastern European Law Initiative; the World Conservation Union’s Commission on Environmental Law; advisory committees to reform the housing and eviction courts of the Circuit Court of Cook County; and advisory committees to the Illinois Attorney General and the Cook County States Attorney. Dean Deutsch has been chair of the Environmental Law and Local Government Law Sections of the Association of American Law Schools. He has served on the board of Directors of the Chicago Audubon Society, as a hearing officer for the Chicago Commission on Human Relations, where he presided over more than 20 cases and a dozen full hearings; as chair of the North Suburban Fair Housing Center; and as chair of the Interfaith Housing Development Corporation. He was a pro bono attorney for the Leadership Council for Metropolitan Open Communities, the umbrella fair housing organization in the Chicago metropolitan area. (Back to Top)

Board Co-Chair, Patricia Hanraran
Legal Services Corporation

Pat Hanrahan is an immigration lawyer in Washington DC. She has been Special Counsel to the LSC Vice President for Programs at the Legal Services Corporation (LSC) in Washington, DC, Director of the American Bar Association Commission on Homelessness and Poverty, and a staff attorney at the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law Voting Rights Project. A graduate of Antioch Law School, she was also a community organizer in Jackson, Mississippi. (Back to Top)

Antoinette Sedillo Lopez
University of New Mexico School of Law

Antoinette Sedillo Lopez is Associate Dean at the University of New Mexico School of Law. Ms. Sedillo Lopez received her bachelors (magna cum laude), from the University of New Mexico in 1979. She graduated from UCLA Law School in 1982. After clerking for the District of Columbia Circuit Court, she joined the law firm of Modrall, Sperling, Roehl, Harris and Sisk, P.C. She joined the faculty of the University of New Mexico Law School in 1986. She has taught Land Use, Civil Procedure, Professional Responsibility, Family Law, Election Law, Comparative Law and regularly teaches and practices in the Clinical Law Program. She has published various articles in national law journals and has spoken on topics in her areas of expertise to regional, national and international audiences. She has published a 6 volume anthology, Latinos in the United States: History Law and Perspective. (Garland Press). She is the series editor for the Garland series, Latino Communities: Emerging Voices-Social, Cultural, Political and Legal Issues. Her poetry and creative writing has appeared in Women's Studies, Chicano studies and literary journals. 

She has served and chaired various boards and commissions. She has served as president of the New Mexico Hispanic Bar Association and chair of the Clinical Section of the Association of American Law Schools. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Clinical Legal Education Association and the Law School Admissions Council, Minority Affairs Committee. (Back to Top)

Lisa Lindelef

Lisa Lindelef is a licensed attorney and psychotherapist with extensive experience in nonprofit agency management, clinical legal education and advocacy on behalf of women and children. Currently an independent radio producer, she has researched and produced programs for KQED Radio, NPR’s San Francisco affiliate; and KPFA, Pacifica Network Radio for Northern and Central California.

A graduate of Stanford University (B.A. Psychology), the University of Southern California (M.S., Counseling Psychology), and Stanford Law School, Lisa is the former Assistant Director of Public Interest Programs at Stanford Law School and former Acting Coordinator of Field Placement Programs at Boalt Hall School of Law. In these positions she administered all aspects of the law schools’ public interest/public sector and clinical externship programs; prepared educational and training materials for students and field placement supervisors; and facilitated panels and programs for students, practitioners and alumni.

Lisa currently serves on the board of NARAL Pro-Choice America, and is President of the Transition Board of NARAL Pro-Choice California. She is a past board member of several nonprofit organizations in Southern California and a former member of Stanford Law School’s Board of Visitors. Other affiliations and interests include the ACLU of Northern California and the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. (Back to Top)

Neal Manne
Susman Godfrey LLP

Litigation partner with the law firm of Susman Godfrey LLP. Mr. Manne is well-recognized as one of the premier trial attorneys in America, having been profiled by the American Lawyer as one of 45 lawyers “who are making their mark today and will lead the profession tomorrow.” Mr. Manne has also spend much of his professional legal career providing pro bono legal services, with his legal work on behalf of women's rights led to him being honored by the National Women's Political Caucus (along with Vice President Al Gore) as the national "Good Guy of the Year." Mr. Manne takes seriously the legal profession's mandate that lawyers provide free legal services to the needy, having worked on behalf of, among other organizations and individuals, women's health clinics targeted by violent protestors and Moslem jail inmates seeking accommodation of their religion's dietary restrictions. Mr. Manne has served on many Boards, including Houston's Center for AIDS (founding Chair), Vice Chair of the Houston Bar Foundation, the Houston Area Women's Center, the Anti-Defamation League, the University of Texas Foundation, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America's Action Fund, Texas Appleseed Foundation, the Women's Advocacy Project and the Texas Freedom Network. (Back to Top)

Drucilla Stender Ramey

Drucilla Stender Ramey received her J.D. from Yale Law School in 1972, and her B.A., magna cum laude, from Harvard University in 1968. Ms. Ramey has devoted her career to social justice activism, first as a civil rights litigator at MALDEF and in private practice, then as a law professor at Golden Gate University, and, for 17 years, as Executive Director and General Counsel of the Bar Association of San Francisco. Ms. Ramey, formerly chaired organizations including the ACLU of Northern California and the San Francisco Commission on the Status of Women and was co-founder of the California Minority Counsel Program and California Women Lawyers. Her work in support of legal services and diversity has garnered her many awards, including the ABA Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award, the organization’s highest honor to women in the profession, and the American Jewish Committee’s Learned Hand Award. Since moving to New York two years ago, she has served as a consultant for the American College of Trial Lawyers, the J.M. Kaplan Fund, and the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA). (Back to Top)

Fred Rooney
Community Legal Resource Network

Mr. Rooney has been the Director of CUNY’s Community Legal Resource Network (CLRN) since its founding in 1998. Before joining CLRN, Rooney opened his own practice for low-income clients in 1987, choosing for his base of operations a Latino neighborhood of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The firm's work, which consists mainly of family law, bankruptcy, real estate, workers compensation, and social security cases, was honored in 1994 by the Pennsylvania Bar Association's "Pro Bono Award." Since October 1998 he has divided his time between New York City and Bethlehem, where he plays a scaled-back role in his firm. With 13 years of experience in his own small practice, Rooney saw the Community Legal Resource Network directorship as the perfect way to "return the kindness" of those mentors who had assisted him. He saw that CLRN could help other lawyers avoid what he had gone through and help them create financially viable and professionally satisfying lives. (Back to Top)

Jock M. Smith
Cochran, Cherry, Givens, & Smith

Jock M. Smith is a founder and Senior Partner in the National Law Firm of Cochran, Cherry, Givens & Smith, P. C. Mr. Smith received his undergraduate degree with honors from Tuskegee University and his Doctor of Juris Prudence from the University of Notre Dame School of Law. His legal career has included numerous verdicts and settlements in the six and seven figure range. Mr. Smith has served as the past Present of the Alabama Lawyers Association as well as the Macon County Bar Association. Currently, Mr. Smith is a member of the Alabama Bar Association, the American Trial Lawyers Association, the National Bar Association, the Alabama Lawyers Association and the Alabama Trial Lawyers Association.

Currently, Mr. Smith serves as a Trial Trustee and on the Executive Committee of the Alabama Trial Lawyers Association and received an award from that Association on December 12, 1997 for his tireless dedication and unwaivering commitment to the pursuit of justice. He is a member of the Alabama Bar, New York Bar, Tennessee Bar, and District of Columbia Bar.

Mr. Smith has also served as Municipal Judge for the City of Camp Hill, Alabama. Mr. Smith was also appointed by former Alabama Governor, Jim Folsom, Jr. and served as the Administrative Law Judge for the Alabama Department of Environmental Management.

Mr. Smith was also chosen as one of three hundred plus African Americans whose biography appeared in the recently published work of Dr. Richard Bailey entitled, "They to Call Alabama Home", African American Profiles 1800-1999.

In July, 1998, Mr. Smith along with world famous Attorney Johnny L. Cochran, Jr. as well as J. Keith Givens and Samuel Cherry, founded the law firm of Cochran, Cherry, Givens & Smith, P. C. Presently, the National Law Firm has offices in Tuskegee, Alabama, Dothan, Alabama, Los Angeles, California, New York City, Chicago, Illinois, and Atlanta, Georgia. The firm is presently engaged in major civil tort litigation across the United States of America.

Mr. Smith also serves as President and Founder of "Scoring for Life", a motivational speaking Company/Ministry chartered to change and uplift the lives of youth and the general community at large to make better choices in life in order to manifest their destiny. "Scoring for Life" is assisted in its presentations by Mr. Smith’s sports memorabilia collection which contains the largest number of game worn uniforms from the greats of the game in the world. Mr. Smith is married to Yvette Smiley Smith, CPA who is an expert witness in civil litigation matters across the United States of America. They have one daughter, Janay, who is a product design engineer with Gullette. Mr. Smith is an active member of Christian Life Church in Montgomery, Alabama. (Back to Top)

John Morris Williams
Oklahoma Bar Association

Executive Director of the Oklahoma Bar Association. Mr. Williams has previously served as the Executive Director of Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma, as General Counsel to the Oklahoma Education Association and as Legal Counsel to the Spanish Cove Housing Authority. Mr. Williams has also had his own solo law practice for several years. Mr. Williams has been active in local, state and national bar associations throughout his legal career.(Back to Top)