Amy Guninan Prior to joining the Florida Legal Services team in January 2007 (where she now practices primarily in the areas of health law and family law), Amy Guinan worked in private practice for five years representing plaintiffs in Consumer Protection class action. Amy has also served as the legislative counsel for the Academy of Florida Trial Lawyers, as the director of public policy and advocacy for the Florida Developmental Disabilities Council, and as the staff attorney for the Florida House of Representatives’ Committee on Health Care Services. She is an active volunteer with her local bar association’s pro bono program, and as a guardian ad litem.
Cynthia Mark is the managing attorney of the Asian Outreach Unit (AOU) at Greater Boston Legal Services. She specializes in immigrant workers rights, the barriers they face in the workplace, and the rights of limited-English-proficient persons. Cynthia graduated from Northeastern University School of Law. Before law school, she worked at the Chinese Progressive Association teaching English as a Second Language and citizenship classes, and organizing Chinese immigrant workers to advocate for their rights. She’s been a CLAE trainer for Basic Lawyering Skills, Community Lawyering and in the course of Leadership Institute.
Janet Gilligan has been at Rhode Island Legal Services for most of her practice. She has worked primarily in Family Law with a special interest in child abuse and neglect cases. Janet has frequently taught at Rhode Island Bar Association and Family Court seminars as well as being an adjunct faculty member at the University of Rhode Island and Roger Williams University School of Law. She has been regularly involved with Basic Lawyering Skills and other CLAE trainings since 1999.
Jim Breslauer (Bres) is the advocacy coordinator at Neighborhood Legal Services in Lynn and Lawrence, MA. He started his legal services career many years ago in Lancaster, PA, working for the Pennsylvania Coalition on Food and Nutrition, before Reagan defunded the program. Back in Massachusetts, Bres was then hired by Merrimack Valley Legal Services in Lowell as their benefits attorney. Six years later, he became associate director/litigation director. On April 1, 1996 (no joke: actual date) he was hired as the advocacy coordinator/staff humorist (not necessarily in that order) at his current program where he continues to make an invaluable contribution.
Natalie Maxwell joined Southern Legal Counsel in 2005 through a fellowship sponsored by Equal Justice Works, the Florida Bar Foundation and Greenberg Traurig, LLP. During her fellowship, Natalie focused on increasing access to affordable, accessible housing for low-income people with mobility impairing disabilities. She is a member of The Florida Bar and the Public Interest Law Section of The Florida Bar. She received her JD from American University Washington College of Law, Washington DC in 2005; and a BA in Spanish and a BS in Journalism from the University of Florida in 2002. While in law school, Natalie worked on consumer law issues as a student attorney in the Women & the Law Clinic.
A former staff attorney with ACLU of Mississippi, Raine Thompson now works in the public benefits office at Southeast Louisiana Legal Services/New Orleans Legal Assistance. She is an Equal Justice Works Katrina legal fellow, and a graduate of the University of Iowa College of Law. A member of various community groups and forums, Raine helps to educate victims of Hurricane Katrina about their rights, as they continue to recover from the disaster. She has trained attorneys, law students, and advocates locally and nationwide on FEMA disaster assistance and the appeals process, as well as local attorneys and advocates on the Louisiana Road Home program policies and appeals. As well as serving as a faculty member for Basic Lawyering Skills, Raine has also participated in CLAE’s Community Lawyering and Structural Racism training programs.
For the last year and a half, Sharon Bundrage has been at Florida Rural Legal Services, where she specializes in housing related issues as a staff attorney. A member of the Florida and Georgia Bar Associations, Sharon is a former criminal law defense attorney and a former child welfare legal services attorney. She received her J.D. from Texas Southern University in 1993, before which she spent nine years serving as a police officer.