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Nancy Goldhill, Staten Island Legal Services’ Project Director,
has been a Legal Services lawyer for 25 years. Before opening the SILS
office, Ms. Goldhill was a Vice President at Legal Services of New
Jersey (LSNJ),where she worked for nineteen years. At LSNJ, Nancy
advocated for legislative and policy changes on behalf of low-income
people, coordinated the practice of family law and argued numerous
cases involving domestic violence and parental rights in the New Jersey
Supreme Court. She also served as statewide Director of Litigation,
supporting attorneys doing complex litigation. She started her career
as a housing lawyer at Legal Services in Newark and was also a law
clerk for Hon. Harold A. Ackerman in the U.S. District Court of
New Jersey.
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Margot Albert is a staff attorney in the Homeowner Defense
Project at Staten Island Legal Services. Prior to joining SILS, Margot
worked in the Elder Abuse Project at Legal Services for the Elderly in
Queens, where she handled predatory lending and domestic violence
litigation. As a law student, Margot interned at the UCLA Downtown
Labor Center and Equality Now (Africa Regional Office), and was an
Articles Editor for the Journal of Islamic Law and Near Eastern
Affairs. She received her B.A. from the State University of New York
at Binghamton and her J.D. from UCLA School of Law.
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Margaret Becker is director of the Homeowner Defense Project at
Staten Island Legal Services. Margaret started the Homeowner Defense
Project in 2006, bringing to it 13 years of experience in public and
private practice. She began practicing law as a staff attorney
representing farmworkers with Michigan Migrant Legal Assistance
Project. She practiced union-side labor and employment law and public
utilities law (representing non-profit environmental groups) with a
private firm in Wisconsin, represented homeless clients as a staff
attorney with Legal Action of Wisconsin, and served as an editor for
the Clearinghouse Review: Journal of Poverty Law and Policy. She
received her B.A. from the University of Michigan in 1985 and her J.D.
cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1992.
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Cristal Downing joined Staten Island Legal Services in October
of 2009 to work as a paralegal in immigration and unemployment. Cristal
came from London, England in 2002 to attend the University of
Pennsylvania, where she completed her B.A. in 2006. Prior to joining
SILS, Cristal spent five months in Bolivia working with a lawyer in a
prisoner rehabilitation program. Her other non-profit experience
includes program work at a home for orphaned and abused children in
Guatemala, and work with immigrant populations in New York.
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Shabnam Faruki joined Staten Island Legal Services in
September 2009 to work as a staff attorney in the Homeowner Defense
Project. Prior to joining SILS, Shabnam was a staff attorney at the
Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago, where she defended
low-income homeowners facing foreclosure and represented other victims
of mortgage fraud and predatory lending. As a law student, Shabnam was
an Arthur Garfield Hays Civil Liberties Fellow and a Notes Editor for
the Law Review. She
interned at the Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem, the ACLU
Immigrants’ Rights Project, Bay Area Legal Aid, the Brennan Center for
Justice, and People’s Watch (Madurai, India). Shabnam received her
B.A. from Yale University and her J.D. from New York University School
of Law.
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Diane Johnston joined Staten Island Legal Services in December
2009 to work as a paralegal in the Homeowner Defense Project. Prior to
working at SILS, Diane provided prevention counseling for at-risk teens
at a youth center in Brooklyn, NY. Her previous non-profit experience
has focused on Spanish-speaking populations both domestically and in
Latin America. She has worked providing counseling for battered women,
helping immigrants access legal and social services, and assisting in
the rehabilitation of juvenile offenders. Diane received her B.A. from
Emory University in 2007.
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Will Kidney joined Staten Island Legal Services in December 2009
to work as a paralegal in the Homeowner Defense Project. Before coming
to SILS, Will served as a teaching fellow at a public primary school in
Barcelona, Spain. He also spent time in Chile and Ecuador, where he
volunteered with various community organization centers in an effort to
improve the local quality of life. Will graduated from Bates College
in 2008 with a B.A. in History.
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Claire McCue is a licensed social worker with eleven years of
experience providing crisis intervention services to individuals and
families. She works actively with the Family Law Unit at SILS. Claire
is a graduate of New York University’s Silver School of Social Work
where she received the Award of Distinction for clinical social work.
She is the co-chairperson of the Staten Island Partnership for
Community Wellness – Domestic Violence Committee. Prior to working at
SILS, she directed a program providing services to individuals with
co-occurring disorders in substance abuse and mental illness at the
Educational Alliance.
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Ana Y. Paolino is the Intake Officer at Staten Island Legal
Services and has been in this position since July 2008. She is also a
student at the College of Staten Island majoring in Business Management
and Public Administration.
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Joe Sanders is a staff attorney in the Homeowner Defense Project
at Staten Island Legal Services. Joe has been a Staff Attorney for
LS-NYC defending New York City homeowners against foreclosure actions
and predatory lending since March 2008. He joined Staten Island Legal
Services in January 2010. Prior to coming to LS-NYC, Joe was a
litigator for New York City’s Administration for Children’s Services.
As a law student, Joe became involved in consumer protection litigation
as an Antitrust and Consumer Law Fellow and as a summer intern with the
Illinois Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division. Joe received
his B.A. from Tulane University and his JD from Loyola University
Chicago School of Law.
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Joseph Sant joined Staten Island Legal Services in August 2008
to work as a staff attorney in the Homeowner Defense Project. While in
law school, Joseph was a law clerk with numerous public interest law
organizations, including the Northwest Justice Project in Washington
State, the Housing Justice Project in Kent, WA, the Washington Lawyers’
Committee for Civil Rights, and Washington D.C.’s Neighborhood Legal
Services Program. Joseph obtained his J.D. in 2008 from Georgetown
University Law Center, where he was a senior editor of the Georgetown
Journal of International Law.
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Clara Saviñon is Director of Administrator at Staten Island
Legal Services. She has been with SILS since its inception in 2004
when she was hired as Administrative Assistant. Clara also represents
clients in public assistance cases and Social Security disability
benefits claim denials.
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Johane Severin joined Staten Island Legal Services in January
2009 as a Staff Attorney. She represents clients in immigration, social
security, and unemployment matters. As a law student, Johane worked
with a number of public interest organizations including South Brooklyn
Legal Services, Lutheran Social Services of New York, and the City Bar
Justice Center, the pro bono affiliate of the New York City
Bar. Prior to attending law school, Johane worked in higher education
and human resources. She earned her B.A. at Wesleyan University, her
M.S.Ed. from the University of Pennsylvania, and her J.D. from Brooklyn
Law School where she was a Sparer Fellow.
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Carolyn Sha joined Staten Island Legal Services in September
2009 as a deferred associate from Latham & Watkins LLP. While in
law school, Carolyn participated in the University of Chicago Law
School’s Appellate Advocacy Clinic where she drafted an appellate brief
and argued before the Seventh Circuit. Carolyn obtained her J.D. in
2009 from the University of Chicago and her B.A. from Swarthmore
College in 2004. Prior to attending law school, Carolyn worked for an
immigration law firm and the Securities Fraud Unit of the U.S.
Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of NY.
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Alicia T. Simpson is a staff attorney in the Family Law Unit at
Staten Island Legal Services where she represents survivors of domestic
violence in custody, visitation, family offense, child support, and
divorce matters. Prior to joining SILS in April 2006, Alicia worked in
the Family Law Unit at Queens Legal Services and previously practiced
employment-based immigration and asylum law at a small immigration
firm. Alicia has filed numerous briefs with the Board of Immigration
Appeals and argued before the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Alicia received her J.D. from Temple University Beasley School of Law
in 2001 where she was the Notes and Comments editor of the Temple
Environmental Law and Technology Journal. Her article on mandatory
labeling of genetically engineered foods was republished by the
National Agricultural Law Center in April 2009.
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Jeanne Smith is an Administrative Assistant in the Homeowner
Defense Project at Staten Island Legal Services. Prior to joining
SILS, she was a manager in a medical billing company. Jeanne received
an Associates Degree in Applied Science from The College of Staten
Island.
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Manar Waheed joined Staten Island Legal Services as a staff
attorney in February 2008. Prior to working at SILS, she was a staff
attorney at the National Clearinghouse for the Defense of Battered
Women, a Philadelphia-based organization designed to enhance the
quality of legal representation and personal support to battered women
charged with crimes or incarcerated battered women. Her note on
domestic violence in Pakistan was published in the Brooklyn Journal of
International Law in 2004. Manar received her J.D. from Brooklyn Law
School in June of 2004.
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