Page 24 - NYLJ Professional Excellence 2021

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS

JEANETTE ZELHOF

FORMER EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AT MOBILIZATION FOR JUSTICE

Mobilization for Justice (formerly MFJ Legal Services) congratulates

emeritus Executive Director Jeanette Zelhof on her well-deserved Lifetime Achievement award.

Jeanette began her career at Mobilization sure crisis; the low-income bankruptcy project,
for Justice (MFJ) in 1987 as a staff attorney, and later, the low-income taxpayer clinic and
taking on appalling practices of adult homes, the driver protection project. In 2012, Jeanette
which abused and neglected their vulnerable spearheaded the launch of the three-quarter
residents with mental illness. As a result of house project that successfully reformed this
her tremendous work in this field, including exploitative housing industry and, in the same
the formation of MFJ’s adult home advocacy year, she started MFJ’s nursing home work.
project and the filing and resolution of numer- In 2013, she was driven to revisit MFJ’s roots
BY ELISE ous lawsuits to reform the adult home indus- of serving youth, and initiated medical legal
BROWN try, Jeanette raised significant public aware- partnerships with the youth and adolescent
ness of abuses in adult homes, and obtained psychiatric departments of several H+H hospi-
a momentous federal court settlement that tals. That same year, Jeanette restarted MFJ’s
provided adult home residents with access government benefits work, and then expanded
to community-based housing. In fact, because the project to include immigration work as
of her determination to shine a light on the well. Because of Jeanette, MFJ also launched
industry, a journalist from The New York Times an innovative access-a-ride services program
investigated the plight of adult home residents for New Yorkers with disabilities. And finally, in
and as a result, won a Pulitzer Prize. 2020, under her initiative, MFJ created a special
Jeanette became deputy director in 1997 litigation project to expand and strengthen the
and then executive director in 2011. Under her scope of MFJ’s impact litigation and law reform
leadership, MFJ has been at the forefront of work. The project has already filed a class
identifying problems faced by New Yorkers and action lawsuit on behalf of exploited workers.
addressing those unmet needs by establish- When the COVID-19 crisis hit, Jeanette deftly
ing, staffing and funding new practice areas. leapt to the challenges imposed on MFJ staff
She oversaw the creation of several projects and clients, increasing hotline hours, conduct-
at MFJ, including a social work program to ing outreach to existing clients, and ensuring
assist MFJ case handlers with the challenges that MFJ continued to fulfill its mission.
of gracefully working with people with men- As a staff attorney and later as a supervi-
tal illness and the aged. She expanded MFJ’s sor, deputy director and executive director,
work in economic justice by overseeing the Jeanette has been instrumental in the filing
formation of its consumer rights project, its of numerous impactful class actions and
foreclosure prevention project to serve low- achieving groundbreaking settlements, includ-
income homeowners hit hard by the foreclo- ing: New York v. Sullivan, 906 F.2d 910 (2d Cir.
1990); Schisler v. Bowen, 851 F.2d 43 (2d Cir.
1988); Cortigiano v. Oceanview Manor Home
Elise Brown is Deputy Director for Legal Practice & for Adults, 227 F.R.D. 194 (E.D.N.Y. 2005); Stie-
Director of Litigation for Housing at Mobilization berger v. Sullivan, 801 F. Supp. 1079 (S.D.N.Y.
for Justice. 1992); O’Toole et al v. Cuomo et al., » Page 108

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