Jennifer Mezey

Jennifer Mezey is the Legal Director for Legal Operations and Client Services, where she manages internal legal operations, including developing, overseeing and implementing internal policies and procedures; working with outside counsel to ensure legal compliance; overseeing the delivery of internal language access services, and providing oversight of the administration of client support funds.  

Prior to assuming her current role, Jennifer was a Deputy Legal Director with primary responsibility for overseeing Legal Aid DC’s Public Benefits and Domestic Violence/Family Law practices.  From June 2004 through March 2020, Jennifer was a Supervising Attorney in the Public Benefits Unit. In that role, Jennifer managed the Public Benefits Unit and advocated for individual clients and systemic reforms before D.C. and federal agencies, the D.C. Council, the D.C. Court of Appeals, and federal District Court.  Through the use of individual and systemic litigation and administrative and legislative advocacy, the Public Benefits Unit worked to remove administrative barriers and ensure access to TANF, SNAP, Medicaid, Medicare, the DC Health Care Alliance, Social Security and SSI for all eligible D.C. residents.

Prior to joining Legal Aid DC, Jennifer was a NAPIL Equal Justice Fellow (and Counsel) at the National Women’s Law Center where she advocated for individuals and systemic reform of federal and District of Columbia child support and TANF programs. (She also was Senior Counsel at the National Women’s Law Center from April through August 2011 where she focused on federal Medicaid and health care reform implementation policies.)  After leaving the National Women’s Law Center in May 2001, she worked as a staff attorney (and senior staff attorney) at the Center for Law and Social Policy on federal and state child care and TANF policy advocacy and analysis.

Jennifer graduated with a B.A. in Government (with high honors) and English, and a minor in History, from Oberlin College in 1991 and a M.P.P. from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in 1993. She received her J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School in 1998, where she was a Clarence Darrow Scholar. While at Michigan, she was an Articles Editor for the University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform and a student attorney in the University of Michigan Poverty Law Clinic. Before law school, Jennifer worked for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as a Presidential Management Intern.

In February 2015, Jennifer was named a Where Health Meets Justice (WHMJ) Fellow in recognition of her work to develop medical-legal partnerships between Legal Aid and various medical providers in the District of Columbia. The WHMJ fellowship program was created by the National Legal Aid and Defender Association and the National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership at the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services and funded by the Public Welfare Foundation to create the necessary leadership in the civil legal aid community to build successful medical-legal partnerships. In October 2015, Jennifer was awarded the Champion of Change award by the DC Primary Care Association in recognition of her work, focus and commitment to service and support of improving the health care delivery system for all residents in the District.