The Community Service Society’s Department of Legal Counsel engages in litigation and advocacy to secure the rights of tenants, the unemployed, uninsured and underinsured low-income New Yorkers in healthcare, and the formerly incarcerated to be full participants in civic life.
Our legal staff support the work our research, policy and program staff as they engage civic leaders on behalf of low-income New Yorkers, while also pursuing legal remedies to eliminate barriers to housing, health care and employment. In addition, our legal department has taken up the issues of mass incarceration and racial disparities as core components of its work.
In addition, the legal staff continues to intervene in select cases regarding voting rights. The department has made its mark in litigation to end the purge of voter registration rolls and the disfranchisement of the formerly incarcerated in New York State.
Michelle Light
Associate CounselLegal Department
212.614.5323
mlight@cssny.org
Gabriel Torres-Rivera, J.D.
Director, Reentry Initiatives212.614.5306
grivera@cssny.org
Vivian Lagares
Management CoordinatorOffice of Legal Counsel
212.614.5465
vlagares@cssny.org

