of Community Engagement & Training

By Marion Hoffman Fraley, Communications Director, Legal Aid of Southeastern PA

Legal Aid of Southeastern PA (LASP) Executive Director Shawn Boehringer announced that Carolyn E. Johnson, Esq., will be LASP’s new Chief Counsel, effective Feb. 1, 2023. Erica N. Briant, Esq., has been appointed Director of Community Engagement & Training and started in her new role in January.

Carolyn Johnson

Carolyn replaces Kesha James, who became Executive Director for Management Information Exchange (MIE). Kesha served as LASP’s Deputy Director for Advocacy from 2013-2022.

“As Chief Counsel, Carolyn’s focus will be to guide the overall service delivery of the organization and maximize the impact of LASP’s legal work,” Boehringer said. “Carolyn has been a leading legal services bankruptcy lawyer for a number of years and is one of the foremost consumer lawyers in the state.”

Most recently, Carolyn served as Interim Supervising Attorney for LASP’s Regional Housing Unit. The unit assists homeowners who face losing their homes to mortgage foreclosure or tax sale. She is a career legal aid attorney with experience advocating for the legal, financial, and health care service needs of low-income communities.

Carolyn stated, “I look at legal services from a broad perspective, asking, ‘How do we help the overall community as well as individuals?’ and what legal steps would be most impactful for our eligible clients, including their housing, their families, their finances and all the issues that impact them.”

She cited some of LASP’s newer areas of focus: expungements, disaster legal aid in response to Hurricane Ida, and veterans advocacy. “I’ve found this organization to be responsive to the community. I have been impressed by that,” she said. Looking forward, Carolyn anticipates an increased need for LASP services due to inflation and the end of pandemic programs that provided economic support to people with low incomes.

Carolyn is the former Executive Director of Community Impact Legal Services (CILS) and Legal Aid of Chester County, where she directed operations, fundraising, community outreach, messaging, events, and staffing. In 2022, she was an Honoree at LASP’s Fête for Justice. She also has received the Don’t Borrow Trouble Suburban Philadelphia Award and the United Way of Chester County Community Partner Award. Carolyn is significantly involved with community organizations in the Coatesville area. She was the co-founder, and is current President of, the Coatesville Center for Community Health and also serves as President of the Coatesville Area Public Library.

Erica Briant

Erica Briant has been named LASP’s Director of Community Engagement and Training. In this new role, Erica will continue to take expungement cases and lead the Community Engagement Unit. In addition, she will coordinate LASP outreach efforts across Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery counties from a strategic perspective. Her role in directing staff training will include developing a staff training curriculum as well as identifying training opportunities outside the organization.

She also will work with community organizations and others who wish to have LASP staff provide a training about legal aid services.

Her prior roles at LASP have included Supervising Attorney of the Community Engagement Unit from 2019-22, Staff Attorney from 2016-19, and Equal Justice Works fellow from 2014-16. Erica’s legal work helps clients gain a fresh start through a practice focused on mitigating the collateral consequences of criminal records and legal name changes.

While a student, Erica interned, providing legal services related to public benefits, immigration, anti-LGBT discrimination and domestic violence. Before law school Erica was a community organizer in Philadelphia and Peace Corps volunteer in Eswatini. She has traveled to 41 countries.

Erica holds a J.D. from Drexel University School of Law, where she taught the Justice Lawyering Seminar as an adjunct professor from 2016-18. She holds a B.A. from Reed College.

Carolyn can be reached at 484-681-2439 or cjohnson@lasp.org.

Erica can be reached at 484-322-6474 or ebriant@lasp.org.