Nurture The Future of the Buhai Center
For 36 years, Betty Nordwind led the Harriett Buhai Center for Family Law with compassion, vision, and unwavering dedication. Today, her legacy lives on through the Betty Nordwind Legacy Fund. This fund was created to strengthen the Buhai Center’s work and fuel innovative programs that reach more survivors of domestic violence and individuals in need of critical family law services in Los Angeles.
Purpose of the Legacy Fund
In this new chapter, the Buhai Center has completed a Strategic Planning process to guide its growth over the next five years.
Our focus is clear: growth. We want to expand our capacity, reach more survivors, and launch innovative initiatives that meet the evolving needs of our community.
Your support through the Betty Nordwind Legacy Fund makes this growth possible, empowering us to launch vital initiatives like the Emergency Domestic Violence Restraining Order Initiative and the new Foreign Service Protocol—tools that allow us to serve our clients more effectively and reach more people who need our help.
This is an opportunity to support the Buhai Center's long-term growth in addition to meeting its annual needs.
While general donations sustain our day-to-day programs, gifts to the Legacy Fund enable us to expand capacity, launch innovative initiatives, and reach even more residents of Los Angeles County in need.
Your support of the Legacy Fund enables work on these initiatives:
As the Legacy Fund grows, so will the number of initiatives your gift makes possible.
Emergency Domestic Violence Restraining Order Initiative
Survivors of domestic violence often need restraining orders urgently, but navigating the legal system can be slow, confusing, and overwhelming.
With direct referrals from WomenShelter Long Beach, this initiative provides people experiencing domestic violence with a streamlined intake process, allowing them to obtain legal advice, case management, and in-court representation for urgent restraining orders.
This initiative aims to:
Family Law Foreign
Service Protocol
When family law cases cross international borders, the legal process becomes far more complicated.
If an opposing party lives outside the U.S., our clients can become trapped in a limbo, unable to finalize a divorce, secure custody orders, obtain division of pensions and other property, or access critical resources for their children.
Barriers such as complex treaties, strict service rules, and costly procedures are often technical and bureaucratic. Even small mistakes can derail a case—for example, filings can be rejected if they are stapled instead of paper-clipped.
This initiative aims to:
Plant a Seed for the Buhai Center's Future
Carry Betty's vision forward and help the Buhai Center grow to meet the urgent need for its services.
Call
(213) 388-7505 x312
Donate by Mail
Harriett Buhai Center for Family Law
Attn: Legacy Fund
3250 Wilshire Blvd., Ste 710
Los Angeles, CA 90010
legacy@hbcfl.org
LEGACY fund giving levels
$50,000
Legacy Leader
$25,000
Empowerment Pioneer
$10,000
Innovation Incubator
$5,000
Community Defender
$2,500
Foundation Builder
$1,000
Justice Ambassador
$500
Advocacy Ally
Carrying the Legacy Forward
Stacy Horth-Neubert
Stacy Horth-Neubert joined the Harriett Buhai Center for Family Law as its Executive Director in December 2023. Stacy graduated Phi Beta Kappa graduate from the University of Florida with a B.S. in Telecommunication-News, and from Fordham University School of Law, cum laude and Order of the Coif. Stacy began her legal career as a litigation associate at Proskauer Rose LLP, where she first fell in love with pro bono legal service. But her move to Los Angeles with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP heralded the beginning of a profound legacy in pro bono work and equal justice advocacy. During her tenure at Skadden, Stacy not only maintained a high-paced commercial litigation practice but also spearheaded the growth of the firm’s award-winning impact litigation program as a Pro Bono Coordinator for the Los Angeles office. She joined Sidley Austin LLP later in her career, where Stacy continued to blaze trails, as a litigator, pro bono leader, and champion for women in law. Stacy serves on the board and is a Past-President of WLALA and the WLALA Foundation, past Chair of the Board of Trustees of the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, and is currently a member of each of the ACLU SoCal Foundation and Union boards. For her legal skill and leadership, Stacy has been named one of the Top Women Lawyers in California by the Los Angeles Daily Journal, and one of the Most Influential Women Attorneys by the LA Business Journal. For her pro bono work, Stacy has received the prestigious California Lawyer of the Year Award (CLAY) for extraordinary contributions to the law, and both the ACLU of Southern California Pro Bono Advocacy Award and its Freedom of Information Award.
Betty Nordwind
Betty’s crusade for the rights of low-income and disenfranchised individuals precedes her accomplished legal career, which began when she was just a teen. She has devoted her legal career to social justice issues and has been at the forefront of efforts championing the rights of low-income individuals, 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 led 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 low-income individuals with chronic mental health issues. Hired to manage the Harriett Buhai Center of Family Law in 1987 as its Executive Director, Betty oversaw its growth from a fledgling office of four people and fewer than 35 volunteers to a strong community institution. Under Betty’s tutelage, the Buhai Center trained hundreds of lawyers and law students, filed several significant lawsuits, engaged in other advocacy to eliminate barriers to the courts, and undertook legislative efforts to change child support laws and practices in California and Los Angeles. Under Betty’s direction, the Buhai Center opened doors to the promise of family law and donated volunteer assistance to low-income community college students and incarcerated mothers.
