Harvard Legal Aid Bureau

Eloise P. Lawrence is a Clinical Professor of Law and the Faculty Director of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau. Lawrence co-teaches Housing Law and Policy on a biennial basis and Introduction to Advocacy: Civil Legal Aid Ethics, Theory and Practice and Advanced Clinical Practice with members of the HLAB teaching team. She also teaches a 1L reading group on Movement Lawyering. And, she serves as supervisor and faculty adviser for the student practice organization Project No One Leaves.

Lawrence teaches and practices law with a movement lawyering focus. In particular, she works closely with organizers, tenants and tenant associations to prevent low-income individuals and families from being displaced from their homes and communities due to gentrification, speculation and foreclosure. In the process of eviction defense, Lawrence works with tenants and tenant associations to realize their collective power. This power is used to build a larger movement advocating for systemic change in our housing system. Lawrence joined HLAB in 2011 at the height of the foreclosure crisis. Over the following 4 or 5 years, she represented hundreds of tenants or former homeowners against displacement. These cases involved predatory lending, improper foreclosure practices, discrimination, and unfair practices in the servicing of loans. Two of these cases resulted in successful decisions by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. Due to Lawrence’s close partnership with organizers and community members in the City of Lynn, they were able to pass and implement a city-wide mandatory mediation program between banks and homeowners. This program was unique in the Commonwealth.

Lawrence is passionate about teaching law students how to become movement lawyers. As part of this effort, she uses a model that teaches students how to provide legal advice at weekly community meetings, how to represent tenants and tenant associations in tandem, how to include organizers in representation of clients, and how to strategize with organizers about non-legal advocacy tactics to achieve the goals of the clients and the movement. Through this model, students learn the differences of movement lawyering and traditional legal services. Students are taught how to grapple with the ethical and practical challenges of working with groups who may not be formally recognized as legal entities. Finally, Lawrence takes every opportunity to demonstrate how clinical education can and should further incorporate movement lawyering into its pedagogy and practice.

Prior to coming to Harvard, Lawrence worked as a consumer attorney at Greater Boston Legal Services representing homeowners against foreclosing banks. Before GBLS, she worked at the Conservation Law Foundation where she represented clients in environmental justice cases in Roxbury and Chelsea including defeating a new power plant proposed next to a school. She started her legal career as a Skadden Fellow in Chicago where she represented African American public housing residents in two large Fair Housing Act class action cases. She received a J.D. from Northwestern University School of Law in 2002 and a B.A. from Stanford University in 1995.

Patricio has been a Clinical Instructor at HLAB since 2011. Before that, he was an Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Rights Division of the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office. From 2004 to 2008, he worked in the Housing Unit of Neighborhood Legal Services in Lynn, Massachusetts, first as a Berkeley Law Fellow then as a Staff Attorney. Patricio graduated from Northeastern University School of Law in 2003. After graduating, he completed a one-year clerkship with the Massachusetts Superior Court in Boston. Patricio graduated from Brown University in 1996 with a degree in history.

Stephanie Goldenhersh joined the Bureau as a full-time clinical instructor in August 2007, supervising students in the Bureau’s domestic relations practice, and is now a Senior Clinical Instructor.  She has been the Assistant Director for the Family Practice since September of 2016. Prior to joining the Bureau, Stephanie practiced for six years at Community Legal Aid–Worcester, handling all manner of domestic relations litigation and 209A abuse prevention orders. Stephanie was also the project manager for the unit’s U.S. Department of Justice grant under the Violence Against Women Act, which partnered with local domestic violence service providers to ensure continuity of legal services to domestic violence survivors. Prior to entering legal services, Stephanie worked at the law firm Foley Hoag, LLP, where she participated in environmental litigation and pro bono advocacy for survivors of domestic violence. Stephanie received a B.A. in Sociology, Politics and Women’s Studies from Brandeis University and her J.D. from University of Michigan Law School. In law school, Stephanie was a Project Coordinator of the Family Law Project, a provider of student representation for domestic violence survivors seeking protective orders. Stephanie was also an editor of the Michigan Journal of Gender & Law, and team-taught the undergraduate course “Women in the Law.”

Pattie is a clinical instructor and Lecturer on Law who joined the Bureau in 2006. She supervises students in the Bureau’s housing practice, and has a particular interest in cases involving reasonable accommodation in housing and Section 8 voucher terminations.  In addition to supervising student attorneys, Pattie coordinates the Bureau’s participation in the Attorney for the Day Program in Boston Housing Court, where students provide assistance to unrepresented tenants facing eviction from their homes.  Pattie holds an Ed.M. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a J.D. from Boston College Law School. Prior to coming to the Bureau, Pattie was a fellow and clinical instructor at the HLS Legal Services Center practicing in the areas of housing law and consumer bankruptcy, and was an associate at the Cambridge law firm of Pressman & Kruskal, where she worked on matters involving residential real estate, estate planning, and lead paint litigation.

Jacob is a Clinical Instructor where he supervises students on cases in both the Wage and Hour, and Family Law Practices. He started at HLAB as a Clinical Fellow in 2021 where he helped start the family defense practice. Previously, Jacob was Staff Attorney in the Bronx Defenders’ Family Defense Practice, where he represented parents and caregivers fighting to keep their children home or reunify with their families taken by the government in the South Bronx. Before law school, he was a policy analyst working with youth involved in the justice system and alternatives to incarceration; and has spent his career working with youth and families. He was born and raised in New Bedford, Massachusetts and a graduate of the public school system. Jacob is a graduate of Boston College (B.A. Political Science); University of Minnesota (Master of Public Policy); and the City University of New York (CUNY) School of Law (J.D.).

Amy joined the Bureau as a Clinical Instructor in 2022. She began her legal services career in 2012 as a Staff Attorney at Merrimack Valley Legal Services, now Northeast Legal Aid, representing tenants and homeowners in foreclosure-related litigation. Before coming to the Bureau, she was the Supervising Attorney for Housing and Appeals at the Volunteer Lawyers Project. Amy holds a J.D. from American University and a B.A. from Columbia University. Outside of work, she enjoys traveling, reading, and spending time outdoors hiking or paddling with her husband, two sons, and dog.

Elizabeth is a Clinical Instructor who teaches and supervises student attorneys in the Bureau’s Family and Wage & Hour Practices. Elizabeth works with students to hone their unique professional voices, sharpen their complex litigation skills, and develop a robust framework for excellent social justice lawyering. Within the Family Practice, Elizabeth has worked with clinicians and students to create a family defense practice that represents parents in state family policing investigations and fair hearing appeals, partners with local and national advocacy organizations, and facilitates innovative community-based teach-ins and Know Your Rights presentations. She also supervises students in a wide variety of domestic relations and family-immigration cases. Within the Wage & Hour Practice, Elizabeth supervises students vindicating workers’ rights through sophisticated civil litigation in state and federal courts. Elizabeth was a Staff Attorney at The Bronx Defenders’ Family Defense Practice from 2016-2021, where she represented hundreds of parents and caregivers in cases alleging maltreatment, partnered on impact and policy initiatives, and published scholarship on family policing issues. Elizabeth also worked as a litigator at the boutique firm Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz PC, where she represented clients in complex civil and criminal matters. She graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School, where she was a Bureau student attorney and executive board member, and summa cum laude from Smith College. She was awarded a 2012 Fulbright Research Fellowship to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Elizabeth is admitted to practice law in New York and Massachusetts.

Chris Pierce is a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker and has been practicing at Harvard Law School for over 20 years. He has consulted and practiced within a variety of legal clinics including Defenders, CJI, Prison Legal Aid, Tenant Advocacy Program, and Harvard Immigration Clinic. He presently works three days per week at HLAB and consults with other clinical programs. Within HLAB, he works closely with the legal team to improve legal outcomes for clients. He frequently provides intervention plans, assessments, and clinical evaluations for clients.

Additionally, he acts as an advocate, case manager, and provider of short-term clinical care for HLAB clients. Within his social work role, he also provides training to law students and supports their learning and advocacy. He is available for a variety of consultations with Clinical Instructors and students. He also supervises social work interns at HLAB. Prior to his work at Harvard, he supervised an outpatient clinic in Taunton. He has practiced as a therapist in a variety of settings in the Boston area and presently has a private practice in Wakefield.