Betty L. Nordwind
Executive Director

Betty Nordwind has devoted her legal career to social justice issues. Betty has been on the forefront of efforts championing the rights of the poor, disabled persons and women. Graduating from the University of Colorado Law School in 1971, Betty immediately signed up for a service corps program at Metro Denver Legal Aid, handling everyday problems of indigent residents of Colorado. In the vanguard of the disability rights movement, Betty founded and lead Denver Legal Aid’s first mental health law unit providing legal representation to civilly committed indigent individuals. Betty also helped initiate a path breaking lawsuit on behalf of poor, chronically mentally ill persons. Hired to manage the Harriett Buhai Center of Family Law in 1987 as its Executive Director, Betty has overseen its growth from a fledging office of 4 persons and less than 35 volunteers to a strong community institution of over 20 staff members and 300 volunteers providing in excess of 28,000 hours of legal service to more than 1,000 very low income persons in Los Angeles a year. Under Betty’s tutelage, the Center has trained hundreds of lawyers and law students, filed several significant lawsuits, engaged in other advocacy directed to eliminating barriers to the courts and undertaken legislative efforts to change child support laws and practices in California and Los Angeles. Under Betty’s direction the Center opened doors to the promise of family law and donated volunteer assistance to low-income community college students and incarcerated mothers.

Heidi K. Slater
Deputy Director of Operations

Fred Emmer
Senior Supervising Attorney

Cheryl Segal
Senior Staff Attorney

Meredith Alexander
Staff Attorney

Nina Combellack
Staff Attorney/Pro Bono Manager

Pablo Schlueter-Corey
Staff Attorney

Judith Schwartz-Behar
Staff Attorney

Jacqueline Klein
Irmas Fellow

Katie Ojeda Stewart
Equal Justice Works Fellow

Elvira Castillo
Senior Client Assistant

Karina Estrella
Senior Client Assistant

Noemi Hidalgo
Client Assistant

Nancy Rodriguez
Client Assistant

Nicola Kennedy
Volunteer Coordinator

Erin Kimmel
Development Associate

Alyson Weeces
Office Manager

Alline Lee
Administrative Assistant

Eunice Castillo
Program Assistant

Catalina Esquivel
Program Assistant

Officers

Jessica Uzcategui (President)
Sacks, Glazier, Franklin & Lodise, LLP

Jessica Uzcategui is an attorney specializing in trust and estate litigation. She is a magna cum laude graduate from Duke University with a JD from Harvard Law School. Jessica has served on committees for the American Bar Association and has been honored for her work aiding domestic violence victims by the LA County Bar Association. Jessica belongs to several professional groups including the Latina Lawyers Bar Association.

Emily Shappell Edelman (Vice President/Secretary)
Law Offices of Emily Shappell Edelman

Emily Shappell Edelman is a certified family law specialist and solo practitioner. Emily lectures frequently to new family law attorneys and paralegals. Emily is a graduate of Barnard College and Whittier College School of Law and is a member of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers.

William Scott Mowrey, Jr. (Treasurer)
CMM, LLP

William Scott Mowrey (Scott), a certified public accountant, is a founding partner of CMM, LLP which specializes in forensic accounting, litigation consulting and business valuation. Scott is a graduate of Claremont McKenna College and holds an MBA from the University of Chicago. Scott is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

Members

Susan Alker (WLALA Liason)
Reed Smith LLP

Susan Alker is a partner in Reed Smith's Los Angeles office and is a member of the firm's Financial Industry Group. Susan has extensive experience representing major banks, financial institutions, private equity funds and hedge funds in corporate lending transactions. Susan is a graduate of UCLA Law School and recieved her M.B.A. in International Business from California State University.

Kalyani Chirra
U.S. Trust Bank of America

Kalyani Chirra, a wealth strategies advisor, was an estate planning attorney before joining U.S. Trust Bank of America as a senior vice president. Kalyani is a graduate of the University of California at Los Angeles and the New York University School of Law where she received an LL.M. in taxation.

Carole H. Cohen
Retired Family Law Attorney

Carole H. Cohen, a volunteer attorney at the Center, is retired from a career in family law. Carole is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University and the Southwestern Law School and served as chair of the Family Law Advisory Commission and on the Family Law Committee for the State Bar of California.

Valerie Cohen
Pro Bono Attorney

Valerie Cohen is a volunteer attorney at the Center providing counsel and advice in the Center’s self help program, preparing individuals to go to court on their own. Valerie specialized in insurance defense before joining the Center as a volunteer and later, board member. Valerie is a graduate of Brandeis University and St. Johnʼs University School of Law.

David Ettinger
Horvitz & Levy

David Ettinger is a partner at the firm of Horvitz & Levy, which specializes in appellate law. David has worked on precedent-setting litigation for the Center to help its clients and other low income litigants gain access to the justice system. When the Los Angeles Superior Court created an obstacle to the Center’s clients’ cases by imposing a fee on mandatory child custody mediation, David successfully sued in the Court of Appeal to invalidate the fee. With David’s help, the Center took action when the Superior Court barred parents who could not afford lawyers from seeking to establish paternity and obtain child support. David aided the Center in filing amicus curiae briefs in establishing important precedents concerning the right to obtain custody orders under the Domestic Violence Prevention Act as well as litigation concerning the process for indigent persons to bring their cases without paying court fees and costs David is a graduate of Franklin & Marshall College and received his J.D. cum laude from Loyola Law School. David is First Vice President of the California Academy of Appellate Lawyers and a member of the Appellate Advisory Committee for the Judicial Council of California.

William J. Glucksman
Kolodny & Anteau

William J. Glucksman (Bill), is a family law attorney and a partner in the law firm of Kolodny & Anteau. Bill is a graduate of the University of California at Los Angeles and of Southwestern Law School. Bill serves as past Chair of the Family Law Section of the Los Angeles County Bar Association and the Southern California Chapter of the American academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (AAML). Bill’s firm provides volunteer legal services for the Center representing clients in court.

Patty Kestin
Community Volunteer

Patty Kestin is a volunteer attorney with the Center and also donates time to a wide range of community institutions providing free health care and other vital services. Previously Patty worked as a management consultant with the U.S. General Accounting Office in Washington, D.C., and law firms in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Patty is a graduate of the University of Maryland and the New York Law School and holds an MBA from the University of Southern California.

Louise Nixon
Law Offices of Louise Nixon

Louise Nixon is a solo practitioner specializing in the practice of pension law. Previously, Louise represented union multi-employer trust funds and was a legislative aid in Washington, D.C. and public relations director for a nonprofit agency. Louise is a graduate of the University of California at Davis and Whittier Law School. Louise provides substantial legal services for the Center’s clients in the area of her specialty, helping them preserve their rights to marital pensions often their only asset.

Jodi Bell Ticknor
Attorney, Writer/Producer, Entrepreneur

Jodi Ticknor is an attorney, screenwriter, producer and entrepreneur. In 2010 Jodi formed On Fire Applications, LLC, to create applications for mobile phones and the ipad. Previously Jodi worked for law firm of Freund and Brackey and as a development executive for Francis Ford Coppola. Jodi is a graduate of the University of California at Los Angeles and Loyola Law School. Jodi provides volunteer legal services at the Center for its clients.

Sam Wald
Public Affairs Coordinator, Planned Parenthood

Sam Wald was an attorney practicing commercial litigation before joining Planned Parenthood of Los Angeles in the public affairs department. Sam is a graduate of Brandeis University and the University of Southern California Law School. Sam has been honored for his work helping Holocaust survivors receive reparations from the German government.

Ex Officio

Also members of the Advisory Council

Yolande Adelson *
Blanche Bersch
Vera Brown-Curtis *
Carolyn DeFrancesco
Mablean Ephriam, Co-founder
Deborah Ewing
Larry A. Ginsberg
Fahi Takes Hallin
Nedra Jenkins
Susan R. Stockel
Beverly A. Williams

*Deceased

Judith R. Forman, Chair
Gisselle Acevedo
Sheriff Lee Baca
Leah M. Bishop
Hon. Kenneth A. Black (Ret.)
Judge Aviva Bobb (Ret.)
Jeff Buhai
Bruce Clemens
Hon. Isabel R. Cohen (Ret.)
Bruce Cooperman
Paula Kane
Tracy Farryl Katz
Robert Kaufman
Stephen A. Kolodny
Hon. Veronica Simmons McBeth
Joan Patsy Ostroy, Co-founder
Patricia Phillips
Hon. Robert Schnider (Ret.)
Judith Salkow Shapiro
Asst. Sheriff Paul Tanaka
Sorrell Trope
Laura A. Wasser
Susan E. Wiesner