Erin Palmer joined PBI in 2024 as the Associate Director of the Corporate Pro Bono project. Previously, Erin served as an ethics lawyer for the federal Judiciary, where she specialized in workplace accountability. She has also worked as a litigation associate at Clifford Chance US LLP, where she focused heavily on pro bono matters including winning asylum for an individual fleeing state violence due to their political beliefs, representing a child with disabilities at a local school to ensure they received needed educational supports, and filing briefs with the United States Supreme Court on the science regarding youth brain development to end the use of life without parole sentences for youth offenders, as well as served as Supervising Attorney of a human rights litigation clinic at American University Washington College of Law and a law clerk at the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. Erin invests heavily in local community and public service. She served from 2019 through 2024 as an Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner, a non-partisan, volunteer neighborhood-level elected official. Erin graduated from the University of Pennsylvania where she majored in Politics, Philosophy & Economics and Spanish (with distinction) and from American University Washington College of Law (JD), cum laude, and American University School of International Service (MA), with a specialization in international peace and conflict resolution.

Lisa Dane Vice President Charles River Associates Ms. Dane is a vice president in the Risk, Investigations & Analytics Practice at Charles River Associates ("CRA"). She has over 25 years of experience conducting white collar investigations for law firms and multi-national businesses. Working closely with attorneys, forensic accountants, data analytics experts, and computer forensics specialists, Ms. Dane has led numerous large-scale, global investigations involving fraud, internal corruption, Ponzi schemes, IP theft, FCPA matters and activist issues. She also routinely assists clients in conducting reputational due diligence on individuals and entities in sensitive pre-transaction matters, and she has extensive experience in global asset tracing matters for financial institutions and corporate clients. Prior to joining CRA, Ms. Dane was a Senior Managing Director and Co-Leader of a business advisory firm’s Global Risk & Investigations Practice, as well as a senior leader of an international professional services firm’s Business Intelligence Services practice. In addition to serving as co-chair of CRA’s Pro Bono Committee, Lisa leads CRA’s pro bono efforts for Sanctuary for Families, New York’s leading service provider and advocate for survivors of domestic violence, sex trafficking, and related forms of gender violence, where she serves as a member of their Legal Advisory Council and the Narkis Golan International Child Abduction Initiative focusing on Hague-related matters.

Lesley Johannsen is a Senior Staff Attorney at the Narkis Golan International Child Abduction Initiative (the “NGI”) at Sanctuary for Families, a non-profit organization dedicated to assisting survivors of domestic violence, sex trafficking, and other forms of gender-based violence. The NGI’s work focuses on assisting domestic violence survivors who fled across international borders with their children, and face litigation that falls under the 1980 Hague Convention on International Child Abduction. The Initiative provides trainings, consultations, and technical assistance; secures pro bono representation for clients; files amicus briefs; and advocates with governmental agencies to increase access to justice for these survivors. Prior to her move to Sanctuary for Families, Lesley worked for the New York State Office of Court Administration for over a decade, most recently as a Court-Attorney Referee in Bronx Family Court, where she presided over custody, visitation, order of protection, guardianship, and SIJS matters. She also previously served as a court attorney to judges in the Supreme Matrimonial Part; the Integrated Domestic Violence Part; and the Child Protection Part in Family Court. Lesley is a current member of the City Bar’s Pro Bono and Legal Services Committee. Lesley graduated from Brooklyn Law School, where she was awarded the Edward V. Sparer Public Interest Fellowship. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Trinity College.

Dara Sheinfeld is Counsel and Head of Pro Bono Litigation at Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP. In this role, she helps manage the firm’s pro bono practice and supervises many pro bono matters, including federal Hague litigation, custody/visitation, abuse/neglect, child support, family offense, and matrimonial matters, criminal and family law appeals, criminal resentencing motions, clemency matters, and civil litigation. Given her vast trial experience, Ms. Sheinfeld plays an integral role in supervising associates on pro bono trials and developing the firm’s pro bono trial program. Since 2017, Ms. Sheinfeld has handled or advised on successful New York State clemency campaigns for three survivors of domestic violence, cumulatively removing decades from their terms of incarceration. Ms. Sheinfeld also provides monthly family law advice at three separate clinics – at the New York City Family Courts, through the Family Court Volunteer Lawyers Project; at the Manhattan Family Justice Center, through a collaboration with Sanctuary for Families; and at Taconic Correctional Facility, through the Incarcerated Mothers Law Project, facilitated by Volunteers of Legal Services. Ms. Sheinfeld previously worked as a Family Law Director at Sanctuary for Families, where she oversaw the practices in the Bronx and Manhattan Family Justice Centers. Prior to working at Sanctuary for Families, Ms. Sheinfeld was a litigation associate at Davis Polk. Early in her legal career, Ms. Sheinfeld also clerked for the Honorable Harold Baer, Jr. in the Southern District of New York. In 2006, Ms. Sheinfeld created a law curriculum for elementary and middle school students, and has been teaching weekly since that time. She also pioneered the expansion of this law program to a middle school in the Bronx. Ms. Sheinfeld graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Brown University and cum laude from New York University School of Law.

Beth Hofmeister is a Supervising Attorney in the Pro Bono Practice of The Legal Aid Society, the nation’s oldest and largest social justice law firm. Whether through individual representation, community-directed projects and clinics, or bringing significant civil rights litigation, each year the Pro Bono Practice provides over two thousand volunteers from New York City law firms and in-house corporate legal departments with training, supervision, and mentorship. These volunteers help Legal Aid staff deliver life-changing assistance to a multitude of clients each year. Prior to her move into the Pro Bono Practice, Beth was an attorney in the Law Reform Unit of LAS’ Civil Practice where she provided individual and class representation to homeless New Yorkers for almost a decade with the Homeless Rights Project. In addition to notable pandemic-related litigation, Beth monitored and enforced right to shelter litigation in New York City, including a ground-breaking settlement on behalf of homeless youth. Beth began her legal career as an attorney in Legal Aid’s Juvenile Rights Practice where she represented children in both child welfare and juvenile justice proceedings, and on various class action cases in their Special Litigation and Law Reform Unit. Beth is a current member of the City Bar’s Pro Bono and Legal Services Committee, the New York State Bar Association’s Committee on Legal Aid and Pro Bono Coordinators Network, and is a Co-Chair of the Public Interest Pro Bono Association (PIPBA). Beth serves on the board of the Coalition for Homeless Youth and previously Beth served as a union officer for the Association of Legal Aid Attorney, UAW Local 2325 for over twelve years. Beth graduated from Loyola University Chicago School of Law as a Civitas Child Law Fellow. As an undergraduate she received a B.A. in Child Development and a Certificate in Community Health from Tufts University.