Administrative & Supervisory Staff
Jeanette Zelhof, Executive Director
Elise Brown, Deputy Director & Director of Litigation for Housing and Economic Justice
Carolyn E. Coffey, Supervising Attorney
Ramonita Cordero, Supervising Attorney
Kevin M. Cremin, Director of Litigation for Disability and Aging Rights
Kenneth Lau, Supervising Attorney
Christopher Schwartz, Supervising Attorney
Lindsay Bascom, Controller
Juliette Dayana Bistoury, Director of Operations
Dolores Schaefer, Director of Development and Communications
Staff Attorneys
Jason Blumberg
Jota Borgmann
Nisha Chandak
Donna Chiu
Adam Cohen
Lisa Collins
Maro Constantinou
Barbara Graves-Poller
Bernadette Jentsch
Tanya Kessler
Elizabeth Lynch
Dinah Luck
Matthew Main
Garen McClure
Orier Okumakpeyi
Amy Roehl
Lindsey Schoenfelder Rothfeder
Anamaria Segura
Rachel Spector
Scott Stamper
Brian Sullivan
Maria Tihin
Shelly Weizman
Sara Wood
Social Work Coordinator
Sarah Heller, LCSW
Paralegals/Organizers
Fanny Chan
Aapta Garg
Una Perkins
Support Staff
Jessica Cepin, Administrative Assistant
Ruby Kennedy, Administrative Assistant
Elizabeth Perez, Administrative Assistant
Extern Fellows
Provided by:
Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP
Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP
Fellowships
Provided by:
Equal Justice Works
Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP
Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz
MFY’s Leadership
Jeanette Zelhof, Executive Director
A long-time member of MFY’s legal team and architect of MFY’s groundbreaking advocacy on adult home reform, Jeanette Zelhof leads a large team of attorneys dedicated to serving the civil legal needs of low-income and disabled New Yorkers. In recent years, Ms. Zelhof has worked to expand MFY’s programs by developing projects to help Manhattan seniors, consumers, tenants and workers in Lower Manhattan, consumers, and residents of three-quarter houses. Ms. Zelhof directs MFY’s affirmative litigation on the rights of three-quarter house residents, adult home residents and the rights of the disabled and provides expert testimony on issues affecting those communities. Prior to joining MFY’s staff in 1987, Ms. Zelhof worked on immigration, asylum, housing and Social Security issues. Ms. Zelhof’s work, particularly her leadership on improving Adult Homes, has been recognized by the Coalition of Institutional Aged and Disabled Adult Home Residents’ award (1998), the New York County Lawyers’ Association Award for Outstanding Public Service (1999), the Association of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services’ Public Policy Leadership Award (2002), and the Association of the Bar of the City of New York’s Legal Services Award (2005).
Elise Brown, Deputy Director & Director of Litigation for Housing and Economic Justice
Elise Brown supervises MFY’s Foreclosure Prevention Project and Workplace Justice Project, which handle cases in state and federal courts and administrative agencies. She oversees outreach, training, and public policy work for those projects at the local, state and federal levels and is responsible for coordination with partner organizations. Ms. Brown obtained CLE certification for the organization and manages its CLE program, which entails identification of specific programmatic needs, recruitment of speakers, and detailed review of written materials for approximately 20 CLE presentations annually on a wide range of substantive and procedural topics of import to the organization’s attorneys. Prior to joining MFY in 2008, she practiced complex commercial litigation in state and federal courts and handled a wide range of legal matters as commercial real estate litigation, business torts, RICO, antitrust, insurance coverage, copyright, railroad law, and construction law. Following her graduation from law school, Ms. Brown served as a law clerk for the Hon. John M. Duhé, Jr. of the United State Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Carolyn E. Coffey, Supervising Attorney
Carolyn E. Coffey supervises the Consumer Rights Project, which provides advice, counsel, and representation to low-income New Yorkers on a range of consumer problems. In addition to supervising the project, Ms. Coffey represents clients in state and federal courts in both defensive and affirmative cases, conducts trainings on consumer law, engages in legislative advocacy to help pass pro-consumer laws in New York City and New York State, and has co-authored several reports concerning the debt collection industry. Ms. Coffey was previously a staff attorney in MFY’s Workplace Justice Project and Consumer Rights Project for four years and, before joining MFY, clerked for the Hon. Deborah A. Batts in the Southern District of New York.
Ramonita Cordero, Supervising Attorney
As head of MFY’s Pro Bono Family Law Project, Ms. Cordero recruits, supervises, mentors, and assists pro bono attorneys who provide representation to caregivers in child guardianship, custody and adoption proceedings as part of MFY’s Kinship Caregiver Law Project. She also recruits and trains pro bono attorneys to participate in the Family Court Project, which provides legal advice on child custody and visitation issues at Family Court. Ms. Cordero also helps to recruit pro bono attorneys for MFY’s other projects. Prior to joining MFY, Ms. Cordero was the Director of Legal Programs at inMotion, where she coordinated a large pro bono project and other programs to assist women throughout New York City. She also previously served as a Senior Staff Attorney at The Legal Aid Society, specializing in family, consumer, and tenant isssues.
Kevin M. Cremin, Director of Litigation for Disability and Aging Rights
Kevin M. Cremin supervises MFY’s Adult Home Advocacy Project and coordinates and directs MFY’s affirmative advocacy and litigation involving the rights of people who are elderly or have disabilities. He has litigated with co-counsel cases such as Disability Advocates, Inc. v. Paterson, which resulted in a finding that New York State discriminated against approximately 4,300 individuals with disabilities. In 2006, Mr. Cremin received a fellowship to conduct a study to determine whether law and public policy should be reformed to facilitate better community-based services for individuals with psychiatric disabilities in India. He has also worked for the West Side SRO Law Project and Legal Services NYC. After clerking for a federal district court judge and a federal appellate court judge, he was a Trial Attorney for the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice. Mr. Cremin has published numerous articles on the rights of individuals with disabilities, and he is an adjunct at Cardozo Law School and Columbia Law School.
Kenneth Lau, Supervising Attorney
Kenneth Lau supervises the Manhattan Legal Aid for Seniors Project, a collaborative program between MFY and the Northern Manhattan Improvement Corporation. Prior to supervising the senior project, Mr. Lau served as Staff Attorney in MFY’s Neighborhood Preservation Project, representing tenants in housing litigation, including appeals and Article 78 actions. Prior to joining MFY in 2000, Mr. Lau served as Staff Attorney for the New York Association for New Americans, Inc., counseling and representing clients on immigration and citizenship matters. He also worked as Program Director for the Chinese-American Planning Council, Inc., where he was responsible for social service programs and service delivery to clients in Chinatown. Mr. Lau is fluent in Cantonese and Mandarin.
Christopher Schwartz, Supervising Attorney
Christopher Schwartz oversees MFY’s Neighborhood Preservation Project and East Side SRO Project, supervising a team of dedicated attorneys who provide advice, counsel and representation to low-income clients facing loss of their housing or public benefits, and who work actively with neighborhood-based housing organizations and tenant groups to address systemic problems. Mr. Schwartz joined MFY in 2003 as a Staff Attorney for the Neighborhood Preservation and SRO Projects, and quickly earned a reputation for expertly handling a large docket of housing court cases while assisting local tenant groups fighting to save affordable housing. Prior to joining MFY, Mr. Schwartz was a litigation associate at a private firm specializing in commercial law.