Biography

Helaine M. Barnett has devoted her entire professional career to the provision of legal aid to the poor and in the pursuit of equal access to justice. She was appointed President of the Legal Services Corporation in Washington, D.C. in January 2004, the first legal aid attorney to serve in that position, as well as the first woman to be appointed full time as LSC President. LSC's mission is to promote equal access to justice in our Nation and to provide high quality civil legal assistance to low-income persons. As President, she was responsible for making funding decisions and providing oversight to 137 legal aid programs throughout the county with over 900 offices, handling annually close to one million cases. Under her leadership, LSC focused on enhancing the quality of legal services, issued the groundbreaking Justice Gap Report documenting the unmet civil legal needs of low-income Americans and instituted a Loan Repayment Assistance Program. She retired after six years, as its longest serving President at that time.

Before joining LSC, Helaine Barnett devoted 37 years with The Legal Aid Society in New York City, the last ten of which she headed its multi-office Civil Division where she was responsible for the overall management and supervision of all aspects of the operation and legal work of the Civil Division. Among her accomplishments, she created and assumed direct responsibility for the Society's Homeless Family Right Project, which is the leading legal advocate for the protection of the rights of homeless families in New York City and mobilized its 9/11 disaster assistance response to coordinate the delivery of critical legal assistance to thousands of New Yorkers who lost their jobs, housing, and health insurance.

Since returning from Washington D.C., Helaine Barnett was appointed an adjunct professor of law at NYU School of Law to teach a course on Access to the Civil Justice System and was appointed by then New York State Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman to Chair a 31 member statewide Task Force to Expand Access to Civil Legal Services in New York. The Task Force became the New York State Permanent Commission on Access to Justice, which she continues to Chair. As a result of the work of the Commission, $100 million of State funding is provided annually to civil legal aid programs throughout the State, which is more than any other State in the country.

Helaine Barnett is the founder of Legal Hand neighborhood storefront centers staffed by community volunteers who are not lawyers, who provide free information, assistance, and referrals to help resolve issues in areas like housing, family, immigration, divorce, domestic violence and benefits and try to prevent problems from turning into legal actions.

Helaine Barnett has held leadership positions in the American Bar Association (ABA), serving on its Board of Governors and Executive Committee and as the ABA Representative to the United Nations and at the New York City Bar where she was elected an officer, a member of its executive committee and continues to represent it in the ABA House of Delegates. She is a recipient of numerous awards, including the ABA Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award, the NYU Law School Alumni Achievement, and the New York State Bar's Gold Medal and has published several law review articles on access to justice. Ms. Barnett is a graduate of the NYU School of Law and Barnard College.

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Helaine M. Barnett, A.B.A.: Previous Margaret Brent Women Law. Achievement Award Recipients https://perma.cc/PN59-DPH4. See video of introduction and acceptance speech.