A self-funded research center within Harvard Law School, the Access to Justice Lab receives governance support from its independent Advisory Board.
Advisory Board Members
Ms. Lauren Aguiar, Partner, Skadden, Arps, Meagher, & Flom, LLP
Lauren Aguiar is a litigation partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP. She represents clients in a broad range of complex civil litigation matters in both federal and state court, with a focus on complex, high-profile cases and trial practice across the country. Lauren was selected for inclusion in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business 2015 and 2016, and was shortlisted by Chambers for its Pro Bono Lawyer of the Year award in 2016. She also is a Fellow in the Litigation Counsel of America (an invitation-only trial lawyer honorary society) and was named a Rising Star in the 2016 edition of Benchmark Litigation. Lauren serves on the Board of Directors of Covenant House International (a shelter for homeless and trafficked youth), and on the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee of New York Lawyers for the Public Interest. She also is the Chairperson of the Skadden Foundation. Lauren lives in Harlem with her son Mason.
The Hon. Stephanos Bibas, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
Stephanos Bibas is a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Judge Bibas was previously a professor of law and criminology at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. As director of the Penn Law Supreme Court Clinic, he argued six cases before the Supreme Court of the United States and filed briefs in dozens of others. He graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Columbia University in 1989 with a B.A. in political theory and from Oxford University in 1991 with a B.A. in jurisprudence. He then earned his J.D. from Yale Law School in 1994.
After graduating from Yale Law, Judge Bibas clerked for Judge Patrick Higginbotham of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and Justice Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court and was a litigation associate at Covington & Burling LLP in Washington, D.C. Thereafter, Judge Bibas served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York, where he successfully prosecuted the world’s leading expert in Tiffany stained glass for hiring a grave robber to steal priceless Tiffany windows from cemeteries. Before his tenure at Penn Law, Judge Bibas taught at the University of Chicago Law School and the University of Iowa College of Law and was a research fellow at Yale Law School. He has published two books and more than sixty scholarly articles.
Mr. Steven Eppler-Epstein, Former Executive Director, Connecticut Legal Services
Ms. Ana Lise Feliciano Hansen, Staff Attorney, Mobilization for Justice
Ana Lise Feliciano Hansen is a Staff Attorney at Mobilization for Justice, providing legal representation to children with disabilities and their families to secure appropriate educational services. Prior to joining Mobilization for Justice, Ana Lise worked as a litigation associate at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP and during 2014-2015 clerked for the Honorable Robert W. Sweet in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Between 2008 and 2010, Ana Lise served as a bilingual kindergarten teacher through Teach For America.
Mr. Sam Hirsch, Partner, Jenner & Block
Sam Hirsch is a partner in Jenner & Block’s Environmental and Workplace Health and Safety Law, Energy, Government Controversies and Public Policy Litigation, and Election Law and Redistricting Practices, as well as leading the firm’s work involving Indian law. Prior to rejoining the firm in 2017, Mr. Hirsch served as the acting Assistant Attorney General and principal deputy at the US Department of Justice’s Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD).
Mr. Hirsch has significant experience in environmental litigation, having led ENRD – considered the US’s largest environmental “law firm.” He has worked on cases that cover nearly the entire range of federal environmental and natural-resources statutes, including the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, NEPA, CERCLA, the Oil Pollution Act, RCRA, the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Lacey Act.
Mr. Hirsch also served as deputy associate attorney general at the Department of Justice from 2009 to 2014. During that time, he supervised ENRD, the Civil Rights Division, the Office of Tribal Justice and the Access to Justice Initiative on all high-profile matters.
Mr. Hirsch began his legal career at Jenner & Block and was instrumental in creating the Election Law and Redistricting Practice. He gained a national reputation as one of the leading lawyers in the field, having litigated voting-rights and redistricting cases in nearly 20 states, including cases under Sections 2 and 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Help America Vote Act of 2002, as well as cases raising constitutional claims under the First, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, and Article I’s Elections Clause.
He is a sought-after speaker and author who has lectured and written on redistricting and election law for audiences at Harvard University, New York University, the University of Pennsylvania, Georgetown University, the London School of Economics, the Brookings Institution, the National Conference of State Legislatures, the American Mathematical Society and more.
The Hon. Lisa Foster, Retired, Former Director, the Office for Access to Justice in the Justice Department
Mr. Eric Powell, Director, AMZL Flex Business and Operations at Amazon
Prof. Rebecca Sandefur, Professor in the School of Social and Family Dynamics, Arizona State University
Rebecca L. Sandefur is Professor in the School of Social and Family Dynamics at Arizona State University and Faculty Fellow at the American Bar Foundation. Her research investigates access to civil justice from every angle — from how legal services are delivered and consumed, to how civil legal aid is organized around the nation, to the role of pro bono, to the relative efficacy of lawyers, nonlawyers and digital tools as advisers and representatives, to how ordinary people think about their justice problems and try to resolve them. In 2013, Sandefur was The Hague Visiting Chair in the Rule of Law. In 2015, she was named Champion of Justice by the National Center for Access to Justice. In 2018, she was named a MacArthur Fellow for her work on inequality and access to justice. She is currently Editor of Law & Society Review.
Ms. LeElle Slifer, Counsel, Burns Charest