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Legal Aid of Southeastern PA Celebrates 20+ Years of Service at Fête for Justice! 4 Freedoms, 4 Counties, 4 Justice

Above: Trapeta B. Mayson, 2020-21 Philadelphia Poet Laureate, shares her healing words of verse in a reading of two poems, “In This Season” and “Superhero.” | Photo by Hitched Productions.

By Marion Hoffman Fraley Communications Director Legal Aid of Southeastern PA

Legal Aid of Southeastern PA celebrated 20+ years as a regional civil legal aid provider at the Fête for Justice on May 19. THANK YOU to the Chester County Bar Association, CCBA members, and all sponsors and friends who supported and joined us at Normandy Farm, Blue Bell for this milestone. Keynote Speaker Reuben Jonathan Miller, Sociologist, University of Chicago assistant professor and author of Halfway Home: Race, Punishment and the Afterlife of Mass Incarceration, challenged attendees to consider the disproportionate impact of mass incarceration on Black and Brown people. Trapeta B. Mayson, 2020-21 Philadelphia Poet Laureate, shared healing words of verse, including “In This Season” and “Superhero.” And we celebrated 47 Honorees, whose work collectively paved the way for LASP’s service across 20+ years in Chester, Bucks, Delaware and Montgomery counties. William L. Baldwin, 2020-22 LASP Board President and Delaware County Bar Association Executive Director, and C. Shawn Boehringer, LASP Executive Director, both shared brief remarks.

Honorees based primarily in Chester County included: • William J. Gallagher, a longtime member of the LASP

Board of Directors. He was Board President from 201618, during the Executive Director recruitment search.

He is also a member of CCBA’s Pro Bono Committee and Pennsylvania Bar Association’s Legal Services to the Public Committee.

• Eleonor “Ellie” Glasco, who joined Legal Aid of

Chester County in October 1973 as a bilingual

Paralegal. She spent her 44-year career advocating for people seeking public benefits. Ellie was key to the

Don’t Borrow Trouble campaign in Chester County while working for Community Impact Legal Services.

She retired from LASP in April 2017. • Rachel Housman, LASP Chester County Managing

Attorney from 2001-present. Rachel joined Bucks

County Legal Aid Society as Staff Attorney in 1995 and was based in the Bristol Office. She then served as Managing Attorney of the Doylestown Office from 1996-2001 until moving to the West Chester office at the time of the merger.

• Carolyn E. Johnson, former Executive Director of

Community Impact Legal Services and Legal Aid of

Chester County. She has served as longtime LASP

Staff Attorney and in June became Interim Supervising

Attorney for the Regional Housing Unit. • Wendy C. Leeper, Chief Executive Officer of CCBA and CCBF for almost two decades. Her efforts resulted in significant fundraising campaigns each year by the

Chester County Bar Association in support of LASP. • Jeffrey P. Lewis, Board Vice President of Legal Aid of

Chester County, helped negotiate the merger and was a member of the first LASP Board of Directors and the first President of Community Impact Legal Services. • John F. McKenna, LASP Board President in 200910 and longtime Board member. Each year, John has played a key role in organizing the annual CCBA attorney fundraising appeal for LASP. He also has promoted pro bono volunteerism within the bar on behalf of LASP clients. John was instrumental in the design of the CCBA’s Access to Justice Initiative which started in 2004; he chaired the CCBA Pro Bono

Committee for 18 years. John and MacElree Harvey have sponsored the Trial Run 5K fundraising event since its inception in 2005. • Robert “Sandy” Mulhern, Jr., Past President and longtime member of LASP’s Board of Directors. He also served on the CCBA Board of Directors, Community

Impact Legal Services Board, and Legal Aid of Chester

County Board. • Deborah Steeves, Staff Attorney since 2000, started in

Bristol and later moved to LASP’s West Chester office.

She launched a monthly veteran’s clinic in spring 2003 with the Coatesville Veterans Affairs Medical Center and holds regular legal clinics across Chester County.

In April 2022, Deb received Supervisor of the Year from Penn Law for her internship program with 17

University of Pennsylvania law students to help clients with SSI applications and Compass applications for public benefits. • Catherine H. Voit has served on the LASP’s Board of

Directors since 2012 and on July 1st became its 202224 President. As a member of the CCBA Pro Bono

Committee, she helps organize the annual Trial Run 5K which raises funds for LASP. During the pandemic,

Cathie presented a virtual CLE on divorce to

LASP staff. The complete list of Honorees (posthumous Honorees are indicated by an *): National Champions: U.S. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon and U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, Co-Chairs, Congressional Access to Legal Aid Caucus. Founders: Dean P. Arthur, Ballard Spahr LLP, Ronald R. Bolig, William J. Carlin, Sr.*, Elizabeth Wood Fritsch, William J. Gallagher, Hon. Isaac S. Garb*, Catherine Herman, Carolyn E. Johnson, John Knox*, Mark Levin, Jeffrey P. Lewis, Joseph P. Lynch, Mitchell W. Miller*, Robert “Sandy” Mulhern, Jr., Elizabeth Price*, Louis S. Rulli, Mark Schwartz, William Shimer, Harvey F. Strauss, Michelle R. Terry and Donald J. Weiss. Sustainers: Judith Algeo, William L. Baldwin, Mardi Busanus, Edward Danelski, Cary L. Flitter, Jean Gauger, Eleonor “Ellie” Glasco, Hon. Stewart J. Greenleaf*, Nanci Hoover, Rachel Houseman, Maryjane B. Kelley*, Wendy C. Leeper, Patricia “Pat” MacCorkle, John F. McKenna, Nancy R. Paul, Randi Riefner, Susan Rizzardi, June E. Schrader*, Deborah Steeves, Susan Strong, Paul Troy, Karen Tyler and Catherine H. Voit. Please visit lasp.org/fete for links to Flickr photo albums with Fête photos and individual bios for each Honoree, and links to LASP’s YouTube page including several Fête videos.

Above, from left: Keynote Speaker Reuben Jonathan Miller, Frank Cervone, and LASP Executive Director Shawn Boehringer. Photo by Hitched Productions.

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Above: Catherine Voit, President of the 2022-24 Legal Aid of Southeastern PA Board of Directors, was among 47 Honorees recognized at the Fête for Justice. | Photo by Hitched Productions.

Former executive directors’ reflections on merging 4 county programs into LASP

In early May, Executive Director C. Shawn Boehringer interviewed LASP’s founding Co-Executive Directors, Harvey F. Strauss and Elizabeth Wood Fritsch, on the challenges of merging four county programs to form Legal Aid of Southeastern PA. Prior to LASP’s founding on Jan. 1, 2001, individual county programs in Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery counties had strong, long-standing civil legal aid programs, but federal and state programs mandated the merger. Liz and Harvey both recalled it as a challenging time. “Our greatest fear was that the County Bar Associations would not support a regional program, and fortunately, that turned out to be an unfounded fear,” Liz reflected. “Our associations did support the merger and really made it successful.” Harvey recalled the two years of negotiations between the four counties, facilitated by consultant Gerry Singsen, formerly of Legal Services Corp.; pro bono assistance from Ballard Spahr LLP; and mediation help from Louis Rulli of the University of Pennsylvania. “It was a long, involved process,” Harvey said. “We were a little reticent about the idea of merger, but we fought through the process. We had a lot of resources, a lot of meetings, and as you all know, we eventually went to mediation led by Lou. After two years, we finally decided to merge, and looking back, I think it was an extraordinary process, draining and politically charged at times, but we wound up with a really good merger of four counties, and now we are a middle-sized program with quite a few resources, and great staff because we were able to keep most of the staff from the four smaller programs. We were pretty enthusiastic about the fact that we were going to be able to do not only what we’d always done but also get into some new areas. I always thought ours was one of the most successful in the country.”

Thank you again from LASP to the Chester County Bar Association and members for your support. Though our celebration has ended, LASP’s work continues!

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