Through both dedicated staff and volunteer lawyers, MFY Legal Services, Inc. has made an invaluable contribution to representation of the poor of this City, whose legal needs have never been greater than they are today.
—Michael A. Cooper, Former President Association of the Bar of the City of New York

Board of Directors and Staff

Administrative & Supervisory Staff
Christopher D. Lamb, Executive Director
Jeanette Zelhof, Deputy Director
Elise Brown, Supervising Attorney
Ramonita Cordero, Supervising Attorney
Sara J. Fulton, Supervising Attorney
Andrew Goldberg, Supervising Attorney
Kenneth Lau, Supervising Attorney
Christopher Schwartz, Supervising Attorney
Lindsay Bascom, Controller
Juliette Bistoury, Director of Operations
Dolores Schaefer, Director of Development and Communications

Staff Attorneys
Magdalena Barbosa
Jason Blumberg
Jota Borgmann
Jonathan Burke
Nisha Chandak
Monica Cheng
Jennifer Cheung
Donna Chiu
Carolyn E. Coffey
Adam Cohen
Maro Constantinou
Bernadette Jentsch
Tanya Kessler
Dinah Luck
C.J. Masimore
Garen McClure
Orier Okumakpeyi
Runa Rajagopal
Amy Roehl
Lindsey Schoenfelder
Anamaria Segura
Rachel Spector
Scott Stamper
Brian Sullivan
Shelly Weizman

Social Work Coordinator
Sarah Heller, LCSW

Paralegals/Organizers
Fanny Chan
Aapta Garg
Rushaine McKenzie
Raquel Namuche
Una Perkins

Support Staff
Jessica Cepin, Receptionist and Intake Officer
Gladys Nieves, Executive Secretary and Intake Officer
Elizabeth Perez, Administrative Assistant

Extern Fellows provided by
Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP
Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton

Fellowships provided by:
Equal Justice Works
Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP
Skadden Fellowship Foundation
Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz

MFY’s Leadership

Christopher D. Lamb, Executive Director
Christopher D. Lamb joined MFY as Executive Director in August 2008. Prior to joining MFY, he spent twenty-two years representing low income clients at The Legal Aid Society of New York and the National Center for Law and Economic Justice. At Legal Aid, he concentrated on public benefits litigation helping secure among other things a more adequate public assistance shelter grant for families, the right of parents to pursue education and training while receiving public assistance, and the right of immigrants to have their eligibility for benefits determined by workers who know and understand the rules pertaining to immigrant eligibility. During the 1990s at NCELJ (then the Welfare Law Center), he was a leader in challenging state laws that penalized welfare recipients who had recently relocated from one state to another. From 1998 through 2008, he was the Attorney-in-Charge of Legal Aid’s Staten Island Neighborhood Office. From 2006 through 2008, he also supervised Legal Aid’s citywide employment law practice.

Jeanette Zelhof, Deputy 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 mentally disabled New Yorkers. In addition to supervising staff attorneys and a paralegal working in the areas of housing, government benefits, family law and the rights of the disabled, Ms. Zelhof trains attorneys in the private and public sectors on housing and disability rights issues and oversees the training of hundreds of hospital discharge planners, social workers, case managers and advocates who work with disabled populations on the legal rights of the disabled. Ms. Zelhof directs MFY’s affirmative litigation on the rights of the disabled and provides expert testimony on issues affecting disabled New Yorkers. 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, Supervising Attorney
Elise Brown supervises MFY’s Lower Manhattan Justice Project and Foreclosure Prevention Project, both of which were launched in 2008. Ms. Brown’s first involvement with MFY was in 2005 as a "lawyer in transition," volunteering her services three days after moving to New York from New Orleans. Ms. Brown has 18 years’ experience in complex commercial litigation, including commercial real estate litigation, products liability, foreclosure actions, and bankruptcies.

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.

Sara J. Fulton, Supervising Attorney
Sara J. Fulton supervises MFY’s Mental Health Law Project, which has won national recognition for effectively combining direct representation of mental health consumers on housing, public benefits, and disability rights issues with impact litigation to address inequities facing all mental health consumers. Prior to her appointment as supervising attorney, Ms. Fulton served as a staff attorney in the Mental Health Law Project for five years, representing mentally disabled clients in countless housing court cases, as well as on family court matters, small claims actions, social security benefits hearings, and federal litigation under the Fair Housing Act. Before coming to MFY, Ms. Fulton was a staff attorney at Queens Legal Services, representing low-income tenants.

Andrew Goldberg, Supervising Attorney
Andrew Goldberg supervises MFY’s Workplace Justice Project and Consumer Rights Project. Mr. Goldberg taught employment law and supervised student interns at New York Law School’s Employment Law Clinic. He has also taught graduate students at Hunter College on the interrelationship between poorly maintained housing and public health. Prior to joining MFY as supervising attorney, Mr. Goldberg worked as a staff attorney for several legal services organizations and as General Counsel to the New York Public Interest Research Group, where he initiated significant litigation to address environmental problems affecting low-income communities, especially lead paint abatement. Mr. Goldberg won the New York County Lawyers’ Association’s Public Service Award in 2006 in recognition of his achievements in public interest law.

Kenneth Lau, Assistant 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.

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