Elizabeth (Betsy) Gwin

Betsy Gwin was appointed as a lecturer on law at HLS in 2018 and has taught courses on poverty law, veterans law and disability benefits. She currently works as a Senior Economic Justice Attorney at Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, where her work focuses on policy advocacy and impact litigation on safety net benefits. Betsy will be co-teaching the Poverty Law Workshop with Julie McCormack for academic year 2022-23.

From 2014 to 2022, Betsy worked as a Clinical Instructor at the Legal Services Center of HLS, where she was the Associate Director of the Veterans Legal Clinic. She supervised law students representing disabled veterans in administrative hearings and state and federal court litigation for veterans’ benefits and discharge upgrades. 

Prior to joining the Legal Services Center, Betsy represented parents and children in child welfare proceedings against the Department of Children and Families as a Staff Attorney in the Child and Family Law Division of the Committee for Public Counsel Services in Springfield, Mass.

Betsy holds a B.A. in Anthropology, summa cum laude, from Syracuse University and a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center, where she served as Editor-in-Chief of the Georgetown Journal on Poverty Law and Policy.

She lives in Jamaica Plain with her husband and two children.