Clinical Staff
Clarissa Bronson, Clinical Instructor
Clarissa Bronson has been a poverty lawyer since 1970. She graduated from the University of California at Berkeley in 1964. After college, she and her husband served in the Peace Corps in Ivory Coast, West Africa. She trained new Peace Corps volunteers in Louisiana in 1966 and organized around welfare rights with a grass roots organization called the Peoples' Poverty Board in Columbus, Ohio in 1967. As a law student, she worked as a Law Student for Civil Rights (LSCRC) in Jackson, Mississippi at the NAACP Inc. Fund. She graduated from King Hall at the University of California in Davis in 1970. She was given a Reginald Heber Smith Fellowship for her first two years as a practicing attorney at Sacramento Legal Aid to work in their urban and rural offices. In 1972, Clarissa went to Harvard to work with Gary Bellow in the clinical program he was developing and worked with students in Cambridge and in Roxbury. After two years she rejoined legal services in a series of positions as attorney, managing attorney, chief counsel and acting director all at Cambridge and Somerville Legal Services. In 1978, she came to the Bureau with her infant son in tow; he is now 29. Her legal experience has been in most aspects of poverty work: housing, eviction and affirmative, benefits, consumer, immigration, family, employment, mental health, care and protection, criminal work, administration of legal services and in community organization. She is now specializing in family law. Clarissa's interests are: poverty, teaching, race, science, history, finance, urban shores, and water salt and sweet. As to other organizations, she is now Counsel for the Standing Committee of the Diocese, a trustee of the Diocesan Investment Trust of the Diocese, a vestry member at Christ Church Cambridge, the historic church across the common where she was the first and only woman Senior Warden in its 248 year history. She was a recent board member of the Mystic River Watershed Association. She is also an amateur naturalist, birder, flyfisherwoman, wilderness canoist and grandmother. She says she never saw a case she wasn't interested in; you can ask her if this is true.
Lee D. Goldstein, Clinical Instructor
Lee divides his time between working as a clinical instructor at the Bureau and as partner of Goldstein & Feuer, a community-based law firm in Cambridge. His recent practice has focused on discrimination and privacy claims brought on behalf of Local 26 of the Hotel and Restaurant Workers’ Union, as well as the representation of persons engaged in acts of civil disobedience. He previously served as the Regional Vice President for the National Lawyers Guild and as a staff attorney at Project Place Legal Services. Lee has taught legal theory at the University of Massachusetts – Amherst, jurisprudence at Northeastern University School of Law, and clinical instruction at the Northwestern University Legal Assistance Project. The Massachusetts chapter of the NLG named him “Lawyer of the Year” in 1998. He holds a J.D. from Northwestern and an L.L.M. from HLS. Lee has been involved with the Bureau since 1979.
David Grossman, Managing Attorney & Faculty Director
Since 2006, David Grossman has served as Managing Attorney and Faculty Director of the Bureau. He is also a Clinical Professor of Law at HLS. Prior to joining the Bureau Mr. Grossman worked at the Legal Services Center since 1995 as a staff attorney and clinical instructor in the Housing Unit. In 1997, he was appointed as the Senior Clinical Instructor and Managing Attorney of the Housing and Litigation Unit. Before joining the LSC staff, Mr. Grossman clerked on the Supreme Court of Israel from 1988 to 1989; litigated with the New York law firm of Kramer, Levin, Nessen, Kamin & Frankel from 1989 to 1992; and practiced poverty law with the firm of Community Lawyers in Jamaica Plain from 1992 to 1995. He has been active in a number of left-leaning Jewish organizations, including the New Israel Fund, and worked for the Israeli political party Meretz. Mr. Grossman received his B.A. in biology from Harvard College in 1980; his M.T.S. (Masters in Theological Studies) in world religions from Harvard Divinity School in 1983; and his J.D. from Harvard Law School, where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review as well as a perennial clinical student, in 1988. Prior to his legal career, Mr. Grossman taught high school history, math and science and coached basketball in both the United States and Israel.
J. Verner Moore, Clinical Instructor
Verner is a longtime clinical instructor at the Bureau, specializing in housing and Social Security. Verner also has a solo litigation practice in Cambridge.
Liz Nessen, Clinical Instructor
Liz divides her time between primarily working as a clinical instructor at the Bureau and serving as “Of Counsel” at Community Lawyers, a neighborhood-based law office in Jamaica Plain. Liz was an original partner at Community Lawyers when the firm was founded in 1989. Her Bureau practice has focused on tenant’s rights and unemployment, while her private practice involves consumer rights litigation. She previously served as a staff attorney at the HLS Legal Services Center from 1986-88. Members of the Massachusetts Bar named Liz the Best Skier among all Massachusetts practicing attorneys. She holds a J.D. from HLS and her dog Pace in the front of her bike. Liz has been with the Bureau since 2000.
Stephanie Goldenhersh, Clinical Instructor
Stephanie Goldenhersh joined the Bureau as a full-time clinical instructor in August 2007, supervising students in the Bureau's domestic relations practice. Prior to joining the Bureau, Stephanie practiced for six years at Legal Assistance Corporation of Central Massachusetts 2001, handling all manner of domestic relations litigation, and 209A abuse prevention orders. Stephanie was also the project manager for the unit's U.S. Department of Justice grant under the Violence Against Women Act, which partnered with local battered women's service providers to ensure continuity of legal services to domestic violence survivors. Prior to entering legal services, Stephanie worked for Foley, Hoag & Eliot, LLP, where she participated in environmental litigation and pro bono advocacy for survivors of domestic violence. Stephanie received a B.A. in Sociology, Politics and Women's Studies from Brandeis University and her J.D. from University of Michigan Law School. In law school, Stephanie was a Project Coordinator of the Family Law Project, a provider of student representation for domestic violence survivors seeking protective orders. Stephanie was also an editor of the Michigan Journal of Gender & Law, and team-taught the undergraduate course "Women In the Law."
Pattie Whiting, Clinical Instructor and Senior Clinical Fellow
Pattie joined the Bureau in 2006 as a Senior Clinical Fellow. In addition to supervising student attorneys, Pattie leads the Bureau’s participation in the Attorney for the Day program in Boston Housing Court, assisting unrepresented tenants in hearings and mediations. Pattie holds an Ed.M. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a J.D. from Boston College Law School. Prior to her coming to the Bureau, she was a fellow and clinical instructor at the HLS Legal Services Center practicing in the areas of housing law and consumer bankruptcy, and was an associate at the Cambridge law firm of Pressman & Kruskal, where she worked on matters involving residential real estate, estate planning, and lead paint litigation. Her personal interests include Star Wars, cats, and the Civil War.
Susana Arteta, Administrative Director
Susana joined the Bureau as its Administrative Director in 2001. Born in Venezuela of Peruvian and Spanish parents, she was raised in Puerto Rico and has lived in several countries throughout the Americas. Prior to joining the Bureau Susana worked for 14 years at LASPAU: Academic and Professional Programs of the Americas, a center affiliated with Harvard University. Through LASPAU she had the opportunity to work closely with government agencies and universities in the Dominican Republic and in Venezuela. Susana graduated from Brown University with a BA in International Relations and Social Anthropology which included coursework at the Universidad de Costa Rica and at University of Arizona-Tucson. Susana loves to travel and is interested in film, the arts and culture of indigenous peoples, wildlife and science fiction. She is most happy near warm oceans.
Lybia M Rivera, Program Administrator
Lybia joined the Bureau in October of 2006 as a part-time Program Administrator. For the last five years, she worked as research and teaching assistant in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures at FAS. She also helped research material for the book "Boricua Pop: Puerto Ricans and the Latinization of American Culture" by Columbia University Professor Frances Negrón-Muntaner. Her language skills include Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese. She holds a BA in Hispanic Studies with a minor in English Literature from the Universidad de Puerto Rico and is currently pursuing an MLA in Government through the Extension School. She also attended the Università per Stranieri in Perugia, Italia where she studied Italian language and cinema. Her interests include constitutionalism, citizenship, accountability, independence of the judiciary in Latin America, literary and cultural theory, Nietzsche, the 19th century, reading biographies, writing, singing, and dancing.