Did you know low-income Americans did not receive any or enough legal help for 92% of their civil legal problems\, dr iving them deeper into poverty? Join Wasserstein Fellow Lena Silver ('13) t o learn about the opportunities for diverse forms of advocacy in poverty la w including direct client services\, community outreach and organizing\, an d systemic work through coalition building\, legislative and administrative advocacy\, and impact litigation. As an expert in public benefits law\, wi th an emphasis in immigrant access to public benefits\, Lena will also make the case for why every public interest attorney should be knowledgeable ab out the safety net\, and how pursuing legal work in public benefits is both exciting and critical to fighting poverty.
Lunch provided. Please RS VP below! Open to the HLS community.
If you or an event participant r equires disability-related accommodations\, please contact HLS Accessibilit y Services at accessibility@ law.harvard.edu two weeks in advance of the event.
Lena Silver is dedicated to combating poverty by elevating the voices of diverse\, low-in come communities through both direct services and systemic advocacy shaped by the lived experiences of her clients. Lena is currently the Director of Policy and Administrative Advocacy at Neighborhood Legal Services of Los An geles County (NLSLA)\, where she has worked since 2015. In this role\, Lena oversees NLSLA’s public benefits and workers’ rights teams and supports po licy and administrative advocacy initiatives across the organization. She b egan her tenure practicing housing law before shifting her focus to improvi ng access to local\, state\, and federal public benefits. In 2021\, Lena fi led Hunger Action Los Angeles\, et al. v. County of Los Angeles\, et al.\, on behalf of a harmed client and several community organizations\, to enfor ce the right of food stamp applicants to receive timely emergency assistanc e. Following the lawsuit\, the County improved its processing rate for emer gency applications from 50% to 98%. That same year\, Lena launched the Bene fits Access for Immigrants (BAILA) Los Angeles Network (www.bailanetwork.or g)\, a collaboration among benefits enrollers\, outreach workers\, and lega l aid providers. The network aims to increase immigrant access to public be nefits by addressing barriers such as public charge fears and misinformatio n. Before joining NLSLA\, Lena completed a fellowship at the Sargent Shrive r National Center on Poverty Law in Chicago and clerked for a judge in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio. She earned her B.A. from UC Berkeley in 2008 and her J.D. from Harvard Law School in 2013\, whe re she was a proud member of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau.
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