Patty Mullahy Fugere
Executive Director
202-328-5504
Contact by email
Patty Mullahy Fugere was one of the co-founders, and previously served as Board president, of the Legal Clinic. Prior to assuming the position of director in 1991, she was engaged in the private practice of law for seven years, specializing in affordable housing and homelessness issues.
Patty is responsible for the overall management of the Legal Clinic and guides the organization's work toward realizing its vision of a just community. She is a member of the DC Access to Justice Commission and serves on the Steering Committee of the Fair Budget Coalition and the Advisory Committee of the DC Fiscal Policy Institute. She is also a board member of the Homeless Children's Playtime Project, the National Center for Housing and Child Welfare and the Washington Council of Lawyers. Patty is an adjunct faculty member at the Georgetown University Law Center, where she teaches a course on "Homelessness and Legal Advocacy."
Marta Beresin
Staff Attorney
202-328-5506
Contact by email
Marta Beresin joined the Legal Clinic's staff in 2000, having had over five years of prior experience as a legal services attorney -- first with the Maryland Legal Aid Bureau, including serving as Chief Attorney of the Southern Maryland Office, and with the Homeless Persons Representation Project in Baltimore. Marta's family law expertise complements the expertise of other staff attorneys at the Clinic.
Marta's work focuses on improving the lives of families who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. She case counsels volunteers who do intake at the Family Resource Center and maintains her own case load as well. Most of her clients have legal problems with shelter, TANF, or locally- or federally-subsidized housing. Her systemic advocacy focuses on improving the programs that low-income families rely on (shelter, welfare, emergency assistance, school access for homeless children, affordable housing programs, DC Housing Authority programs) as well as DC budget issues. Marta is a member of the Fair Budget Coalition, the DCHA Advocates Group, and the Domestic Violence and Housing Workgroup. She also presents legal rights workshops on housing, shelter, public benefits programs and family law, to client groups and shelter and housing providers.
Julie Broas
Staff Attorney
Contact by email
Julie Broas joined the Legal Clinic in September 2010 as the Jones Day Senior Fellow, after practicing as a member of Jones Day's Labor & Employment group for over twenty years. A former Board member and volunteer with the Legal Clinic since 1999, Julie also founded and supervised Jones Day's team of Legal Clinic volunteers, who performed monthly intake sessions at the Church of the Brethren and, most recently, at the CCNV Unity Health Care intake site.
Julie currently case counsels volunteers with Becky O'Brien at Thrive and Rachael's Womens Day Center. As a volunteer, she primarily handled public benefits cases and continues to maintain her own case load. Julie also works to strengthen law firm and individual attorney partnerships with the Legal Clinic, and assists with various fundraising and development initiatives.
LaJuan Brooks
Administrative Assistant
202-328-5500
Contact by email
Lajuan Brooks joined the staff of the Legal Clinic in September 2007 with prior experience on the Fair Budget Coalition and being an advocate for the homeless population in DC.
Lajuan is the first point of contact for all Legal Clinic clients and potential clients. She is also available to assist staff in any and all tasks as needed. Lajuan is a volunteer with the Fair Budget Coalition and a member of the Housing and Homeless Prevention Sub-Committee.
Amber W. Harding
Staff Attorney
202-328-5503
Contact by email
Amber Harding joined the Legal Clinic in 2003 as a Steptoe & Johnson Equal Justice Works Fellow. In law school, Amber interned with the office during the summer and several semesters of law school, interned at the Legal Action Center, and was a participant in the D.C. Law Students in Court clinical program. Before law school, Amber worked with the elderly in southern Arizona.
Amber's work focuses on shelter and housing access for persons with disabilities, particularly those with mental illness. She represents persons who face barriers in the emergency shelter system due to a disability. She also represents tenants with disabilities in eviction actions and affirmative fair housing lawsuits. Her policy work focuses on the following objectives: improving disability-rights law compliance of the emergency shelter system and the District as a whole; improving conditions and locations of emergency shelters; developing, improving, and monitoring subsidized housing resources for persons with disabilities (such as Pathways, Home First II, Shelter Plus Care, and Supportive Housing programs); legislative and policy advocacy with the DC Housing Authority (DCHA); reforming the landlord-tenant court, including improving access to the courts for persons with disabilities; reforming and improving mental health services; fighting zoning discrimination and NIMBYism; and budget advocacy with the Fair Budget Coalition.
Kristi Matthews
Grass Roots Advocacy Coordinator
202-328-1262
Contact by email
Kristi Matthews joined the staff of the Legal Clinic and Fair Budget Coalition in October 2006 after graduating from Guilford College in May 2006. Before coming to the Legal Clinic, Kristi worked as a job coach for Prince Georges Health Department. There she worked with high school students on developing professional skills that helped them in their career pursuits. Before moving to Washington, DC, she worked with low income refugee families as the Co-Coordinator of the Glenhaven Multicultural After School Tutorial Program. There she helped children develop English skills as well as facilitated discussion about cultural differences around the world.
Kristi's work focuses on helping families, individuals, and youth in Washington, DC develop advocacy skills which aids in advancing funding and support to help move people out of poverty. She has developed an advocacy training which helps people find their power in the system and therefor work towards change. She presents the training at non-profits and shelters for people who are experiencing poverty. She helps people develop testimonies and letters to city officials to ensure that their story is heard. She also works on the supportive housing initiative to ensure that people who are chronically homeless voice their opinion as part of the process in developing a housing first plan.
Scott McNeilly
Staff Attorney
202-328-5508
Contact by email
Scott McNeilly joined the Legal Clinic in April of 1994 after more than five years at the Maryland Legal Aid Bureau where he handled domestic violence, child welfare, landlord-tenant, consumer and public benefits cases.
Scott case counsels volunteers at our CCNV, Church of the Brethren and Miriams Kitchen sites. He is responsible, along with other case counseling attorneys, for recruitment, training and general support of the volunteers in our pro bono program. Scott is also a member of the Districts Interagency Council on Homelessness and chairs the ICH Steering Committee.
Will Merrifield
Staff Attorney - Affordable Housing Initiative
202-328-1260
Contact by email
Will Merrifield joined the Legal Clinic in August 2011, having previously worked with Legal Aid of Western Ohio initially as an AmeriCorps attorney on their Homelessness Prevention and Housing Opportunity Project and then as a staff attorney focusing on housing and consumer law.
At the Legal Clinic, Will focuses on preserving and expanding the supply of affordable and subsidized housing for low-income residents of the District of Columbia. He represents tenant associations in affordable housing preservation cases and low-income tenants in eviction proceedings that arise out of building-wide issues. He advocates with various D.C. government agencies for the creation and preservation of affordable housing. He also conducts trainings on the rights of tenants and tenant associations.
Nassim Moshiree
Staff Attorney
(202) 328-1261
Contact by email
Nassim joined the staff of the Legal Clinic in mid-July of 2008. During law school, through her participation in the George Washington International Human Rights Law Clinic, Nassim worked alongside Amber Harding of WLCH to represent a client in a disability rights case before the D.C. Office of Human Rights.
Nassims work focuses on the Clinics Access to Employment Project (AEP), the purpose of which is two-fold: to address the immediate need for education and mobilization of emergency shelter residents around the barriers to employment; and to ensure that the homeless services system responds to the needs of its residents both qualitatively and quantitatively by expanding its services into a holistic model that not only supports job readiness, job training, and employment opportunities, but also assures adequate housing accompanied by adequate support services. Through AEP, Nassim provides direct legal representation to clients in shelter cases, conducts trainings and workshops designed to educate residents about their legal rights, and advocates for policy changes that will further the Legal Clinic's ultimate goal of ending homelessness in DC.
Becky O'Brien
Staff Attorney
202-328-5507
Contact by email
Becky OBrien rejoined the Legal Clinic staff in December 2008. She was an Equal Justice Works Fellow with the Legal Clinic from 2000-2002 and remained as a staff attorney until fall 2003. She moved to Boston where she continued to work in legal services. She was a staff attorney at Greater Boston Legal Services working in the Elder and Housing Units. While in Boston, Becky specialized in public benefits cases and landlord and tenant issues. She case counsels volunteer attorneys who do intake at Thrive and Rachels Womens Day Center. She maintains her own case load and participates in systemic advocacy on a variety of legal issues.
Leslie Plant
Administrator
202-328-5511
Contact by email
Leslie Plant has been with the Legal Clinic as our administrator since 1988. She developed her management, administrative and data system skills at Partners for Livable Places and the House Subcommittee on Health and the Environment.
Leslie is responsible for fiscal operations, including bookkeeping, payroll, budget preparation, reporting, filing organizational and tax reports, and annual audit. Leslie also provides fundraising support, and office and information management. She troubleshoots our technology and other office systems.
Ann Marie Staudenmaier
Staff Attorney
202-328-5509
Contact by email
Ann Marie Staudenmaier joined the Legal Clinic staff in 1996, after working for several years at Marylands Legal Aid Bureau as both a staff attorney and Chief Attorney in various local offices. She is a poverty law generalist, having practiced in virtually every area of civil legal services over the past 20 years.
Ann Marie spends much of her time at the Legal Clinic training, mentoring and case counseling volunteer attorneys at several Intake Sites, in addition to maintaining her own caseload. She also coordinates all the police-related civil rights work in the office, which includes monitoring police treatment of homeless persons in D.C.; filing citizen complaints with the Office of Police Complaints; researching trends in criminalization of homelessness; conducting Street Rights seminars; doing outreach and education to local businesses on the rights of homeless persons; working on litigation strategies related to criminalization issues in D.C.; and conducting Homelessness 101 trainings for all Metropolitan Police Department recruit classes.
Misty C. Thomas
Staff Attorney - Affordable Housing Initiative
202-328-5514
Contact by email
Misty Thomas joined the Legal Clinic in 2010 after two years as the Pro Bono Fellow at Howrey, LLP, where she represented pro bono clients in a variety of cases covering many areas of the law. As a law student, Misty interned at the Legal Clinic for several semesters and also at other legal service organizations, including the Public Defender Service and the Southern Center for Human Rights. Prior to law school, Misty was the Executive Director of the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project.
Misty joins Anne Smetak in the Affordable Housing Initiative which focuses on preserving and expanding the supply of affordable and subsidized housing for low-income residents of the District of Columbia. She represents tenant associations in affordable housing preservation cases and low-income tenants in eviction proceedings that arise out of building-wide issues. She also conducts trainings on the rights of tenants and tenant associations.
Emily Uhar
Volunteer Coordinator
202-328-1263
Contact by email
Emily Uhar joined the Legal Clinic in June of 2011 as our Coordinator of Volunteers. She has previously worked as a Volunteer Coordinator for a home-repair non-profit located in Central Appalachia. She has also formerly interned at Miriams Kitchen, a D.C. homeless agency.
At the Legal Clinic, Emily is responsible for the recruitment, training, scheduling and retention of our Volunteer Attorneys and acts as the liaison between the Clinic and a number of law firms throughout DC. She manages the Legal Clinic's seven intake sites, which include shelters, churches, and dining and day programs. In addition, Emily organizes volunteer appreciation events, discussion series, and community presentations on behalf of the Clinic.
