The legal hurdles faced by individuals living in poverty are vast. They often face uphill battles with issues impacting the most fundamental human needs: family stability, safe housing, food security, fair employment, and freedom from fear and violence. Representation is vital in these areas, and the need is overwhelming. These areas of law often have the highest rate of pro se litigants; when pro bono or public-interest lawyers get involved, these cases also produce some of the most life-changing outcomes for the parties involved. Pro bono lawyers who take on these cases literally can be life-savers.

Learn more about the wide-ranging legal issues individuals living in poverty face and what pro bono opportunities are available in D.C. and across the country to help address these needs at our 2025 Summer Forum Panel on Poverty Law on Thursday, July 10. Register here to join us!

Jen Masi will moderate the Poverty Law panel. Jen is Children’s Law Center’s Pro Bono Director and engages with hundreds of pro bono attorneys from area law firms, corporations, government agencies, and solo practice as they represent caregivers in adoption, guardianship, and custody cases, represent the best interests of children as guardians ad litem in contested custody proceedings, advocate for parents in special education cases, and bring affirmative housing conditions litigation when a child’s health is at risk. Jen also leads Children’s Law Center’s family law team, which includes attorneys and support staff who represent children’s best interests in contested custody cases and caregivers in family law cases. Jen has been with Children’s Law Center since 2011 and previously clerked at D.C. Superior Court and taught sixth grade.  Jen has been a member of our Board of Directors since 2020.

The panel includes:

Tracy Goodman, Children’s Law Center

Tracy leads the Healthy Together medical-legal partnership, which brings Children’s Law Center lawyers side-by-side with pediatricians in health clinics to find and fix the root causes of a child’s health problem such as advocating for landlords to repair water damage that leads to asthma-exacerbating mold and ensuring school systems provide appropriate, quality educational programs to students with disabilities. Under her leadership since 2002, the project has grown from one staff attorney to 16 attorneys, three investigators and a family outreach worker.  

Prior to her work at Children’s Law Center, Tracy was an attorney at the Legal Aid Bureau of Maryland representing children in abuse and neglect proceedings, and she also worked with a non-governmental organization in Brazil specializing in labor rights issues. During law school, she represented individuals seeking political asylum in the United States, and also worked on issues related to domestic and family violence. 

Tracy’s work has been recognized numerous times. Most recently, Tracy was selected by the District of Columbia Bar Foundation to receive the 2023 Jerrold Scoutt Prize, which recognizes an attorney who has spent their career providing compassionate and skillful legal services on behalf of underserved DC residents. In 2017, Tracy received Washington Council of Lawyers’ annual Legal Services Award for her work pioneering the medical-legal partnership movement and her dedication to increasing access to justice. 

Debbie Cuevas Hill, Legal Counsel for the Elderly

Debbie is a Senior Staff Attorney in the Consumer Advocacy & Home Preservation Practice at Legal Counsel for the Elderly (LCE). LCE is the primary provider of free legal services and advocacy for older people in the District of Columbia. In this role, Debbie represents low-income seniors who are victims of financial exploitation and real property fraud and provides foreclosure defense representation. Prior to joining LCE, Debbie was a Senior Staff attorney at the Legal Aid Society for the District of Columbia in the Housing Unit where Debbie provided representation to clients facing eviction or loss of a housing subsidy.

Debbie previously clerked at the DC Court of Appeals for the Honorable Inez Smith Reid.  She was also an Equal Justice Works Fellow at the National Partnership for Women & Families where she educated state and national legislators regarding the need for policies that provide income to workers while on leave for family or medical reasons. Debbie received her Juris Doctor from George Washington University Law School. Debbie is a Board Member of the Washington Council of Lawyers.

Harmony Jones, Eversheds Sutherland

Harmony is US Pro Bono Counsel at Eversheds Sutherland, where she helps manage the firm’s large-scale pro bono projects, including impact litigation. 

Harmony has nearly 20 years of diverse pro bono experience, with a focus on increasing access to justice by providing legal services to low-income individuals and charitable organizations. She has represented clients in a range of civil rights and public benefits matters, particularly in the areas of housing and family law, racial justice and criminal justice reform.

Prior to joining Eversheds Sutherland, Harmony was most recently Pro Bono Counsel at a large international law firm. Earlier in her career, she was a staff attorney at the Legal Aid Society and Neighborhood Legal Services Program, based in Washington DC. Harmony also worked with an international law firm as a pro bono fellow, where she represented clients in civil rights, criminal defense, and federal habeas corpus cases at the trial and appellate level. She also served as counsel for amici clients before the US Supreme Court. In addition to her pro bono work, Harmony has represented commercial clients in a wide range of complex commercial litigation cases.

Aida Vindell, Volunteer Legal Advocates

Aida is the Legal Director at Volunteer Legal Advocates, an organization dedicated to training and mentoring pro bono attorneys in their representation of survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking.

Aida has served hundreds of D.C. residents living in poverty through her work representing survivors of violence at various legal services organizations. Prior to joining the DC Volunteer Lawyers Project, Aida was a Senior Attorney at the Children’s Law Center and served as a Guardian ad litem attorney for abused, abandoned, and neglected children in the District. She also served as a Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault attorney at Ayuda and worked as an associate in a private law firm in Rockville, Maryland where she practiced family law, criminal defense, immigration defense and civil rights litigation. 

Aida holds a Juris Doctor from the University of the District of Columbia’s David A. Clarke School of Law, a law school committed to training public interest attorneys, and a bachelor’s degree in Public Administration from Florida International University.

We look forward to seeing you at this panel! Register here to get your ticket to the keynote and the substantive panels. Join the conversation using #SumFo25!