LSC President
Helaine M. Barnett
Helaine M. Barnett was appointed President of the Legal Services Corporation by the LSC Board of Directors on January 20, 2004. The Board selected Barnett for the position based on her exemplary 37-year career providing legal services to the poor in New York City and her leadership record in the American legal community at the national, state, and local levels. The LSC President serves as the Corporation's chief executive officer, subject to general policies established and promulgated by the Board.
Barnett is the first legal aid attorney to be appointed President of LSC. She has devoted her entire professional career to providing legal services to the indigent as an advocate with The Legal Aid Society of New York City, the oldest and largest legal aid organization in the country. Her experience includes nearly three decades of involvement in the management of Legal Aid Society's multi-office civil division, which she headed from 1994 until the end of 2003. During Barnett's tenure, the civil division grew into a nationally recognized provider of legal services delivering high-quality civil legal assistance to more than 25,000 clients annually through a network of eight neighborhood-based offices and specialized citywide programs.
The civil division employed approximately 240 staff members, including roughly 125 attorneys. Under Barnett's watch, the division earned universal respect for its legal work, innovative projects and adherence to the highest professional and ethical standards. Most recently, she was recognized for developing and executing a disaster response plan to coordinate the delivery of critical legal assistance to New Yorkers in the aftermath of the September 11th attacks.
Since her appointment as LSC President, Barnett has emphasized strategies to support the quality of legal services provided by LSC programs. These initiatives include a revision of LSC's Performance Criteria, which deals with the effectiveness of targeting program resources, services, of legal representation and of governance; issuance of a major report entitled "Documenting the Justice Gap in America," which documents the current unmet civil legal needs of low-income Americans; a Pilot Loan Repayment Assistance Program to assist LSC programs with recruitment and retention of high quality lawyers; and a Pilot Leadership Mentoring Program, which will serve as a model for the development of future diverse legal services leaders.
Selected personal highlights include initiating and organizing the 30th anniversary celebration of the creation of LSC, which brought together for the first time the Executive Directors of all LSC-funded programs in a national meeting (November 2004), and receiving the New York State Bar Association Gold Medal Award (January 2005).
Barnett is the only legal services attorney to serve on the American Bar Association's Board of Governors and its Executive Committee, as well as on a number of other prominent local, state and national commissions and committees.
Barnett received her bachelor of arts from Barnard College and her law degree from New York University School of Law.
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