Meet CLASI supervising attorney, Olga Beskrone!
I have worked as a Legal Aid advocate for my entire career, starting while I was still in law school at Rutgers University. I worked for Camden Regional Legal Services as a 3rd year law student helping senior citizens. After law school, I didn’t want to do any other kind of work. In 1985, I started working with Legal Aid in New Jersey and remained with them until 1999 focusing on housing work. I stopped practicing law for 16 years and focused on family.
I am delighted to be back at work with CLASI in the Elder Law Program. All the work we do at CLASI is important. The results in every case are of immense importance to the individuals we serve. Some examples include:
• the time we obtained $10,000 in damages for a client with physical disabilities who was illegally locked out of her home and had to walk the length of Atlantic City in the winter to get help,
• placing a property in receivership in order to resolve a lead poisoning problem that the landlord would not address, and
• helping a grandmother recover $50,000 from her granddaughter who illegally accessed her bank accounts to take the money.
My biggest hope for Legal Aid is that we will harness more resources to do the work that needs to be done. Without equal access to justice, we can never have a just society.
