The Legal Services Center invites you to a virtual panel discussion:
Advocating for Survivors at LSC
How Three Clinics Empower Clients Who Have Experienced Sexual Assault and Intimate Partner Violence
Tuesday, April 13 at 12 pm
Presenters
Julia Devanthéry
Housing Clinic
Dana Montalto
Veterans Legal Clinic
Marianna Yang
Family/Domestic Violence Law Clinic
Presenters
Julia Devanthéry – Attorney and Lecturer on Law, Housing Law Clinic; Director, Housing Justice for Survivors Project
Julia Devanthéry co-teaches the Housing Clinic and directs the Housing Justice for Survivors Project, which she founded in 2017. The Housing Justice for Survivors Project trains clinical law students to represent tenants who are facing housing instability due to domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking. Students under Julia’s supervision provide direct client representation, develop and litigate impact litigation, conduct housing rights trainings for community members and advocates, and engage in local, state, and federal law reform efforts aimed at improving the housing rights of survivors. Julia and students in the Housing Justice project represented the tenant in BHA v. YA, 482 Mass. 240 (2019), in which the Supreme Judicial Court decided affirmed a domestic violence survivor’s right to raise the Violence Against Women Act defense to a non-payment of rent eviction.
From 2018-2020, Julia was the Dignity for All Staff Attorney at the ACLU of Southern California where she worked to safeguard the civil rights of people experiencing homelessness and advance the right to safe, affordable housing for all.
Julia is the author of Boston Housing Authority v. Y.A., 482 Mass. 240 (2019): SJC Clarifies VAWA Defenses in Eviction Cases, Early Lease Termination Under G.L. c. 186 s 24: An Essential Escape Route for Tenants Who are Facing Domestic Violence Sexual Assault or Stalking and The Supreme Judicial Court’s Decision in Beacon Residential v. R.P. Gives Survivors of Domestic Violence Their Day in Housing Court, all published in the Boston Bar Journal, and co-author of Chapter 12: Evictions in the 8th edition of Massachusetts Law Reform’s pro se manual Legal Tactics: Tenant’s Rights In Massachusetts. She also co-authored an ACLU report exposing abuse, neglect, and unsafe living conditions inside county-funded homeless shelters in Southern California. Julia received her juris doctor from Northeastern University School of Law and she graduated from Brown University with a B.A. in Sociology.
Dana Montalto – Attorney and Clinical Instructor, Veterans Legal Clinic
Dana Montalto is an Attorney and Clinical Instructor in the Veterans Law Clinic, where she represents low-income veterans who received less-than-honorable discharge in military discharge upgrades and federal and state veteran benefits. Dana also works on systemic reform initiatives to improve the institutions that serve our nation’s veterans, which has included authoring Underserved: How the VA Wrongfully Excludes Veterans with Bad Paper and founding the Veterans Justice Pro Bono Partnership.
Dana received her bachelor’s degree, magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from Wellesley College and her law degree from Yale Law School, where she participated in the Veterans Legal Services Clinic and the International Refugee Assistance Project. After graduating, Dana clerked for the Honorable F. Dennis Saylor IV of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, and then joined the Legal Services Center as an Arthur Liman Public Interest Fellow in 2014.
Marianna Yang – Clinical Instructor, Family Law & Domestic Violence Clinic
Marianna Yang joined the Legal Services Center in December 2019. Since 2002, Marianna has represented both plaintiffs and defendants in various fields including MassTorts (MDL) Litigation, litigation involving Class A railroad companies, and most recently, in Child Welfare and Domestic Relations litigation. She serves as a panel member in the CPCS Child and Family Law Division Trial Panel and the Appellate Panel. She is also a trained mediator and a member of the Massachusetts Collaborative Law Council.