Staff

Executive Director

	Richard S. Hobish is Executive Director of the Pro Bono Partnership. A graduate of of Oberlin College and N.Y.U. Law School, Rick has several years experience in private practice and approximately twenty years experience in public interest practice, including extensive experience representing children who were the subjects of neglect and abuse hearings, and serving as Deputy Director of Lawyers Alliance for New York. In addition to having served as a faculty member at the New York University Center for Philanthropy and Fundraising, Rick lectures on corporate, tax and employment legal issues for nonprofit executives and runs training sessions for practicing attorneys. Rick has also served as participating author and co-editor on four publications: "Advising Nonprofits," "Getting Organized," "Employment and Personnel: a Legal Handbook" and "Good Works in Hard Times: Reorganization, Dissolution and Bankruptcy." In addition, Rick serves or has served on the Board of Directors of several non-profit organizations, including Westchester Residential Opportunities, Community Capital Resources, Child Care Council of Westchester, The Bridge Fund of New York, and Camp Starfish, a camp he co-founded for children with severe emotional, learning and behavioral problems. He is also a member of Westchester Children's Association's Advisory Board.
	Program Directors
	Nancy Eberhardt, Director, New Jersey Program, is a graduate of the College of William and Mary and Rutgers School of Law - Newark. Nancy’s work at the Partnership includes providing direct legal services to New Jersey non-profit groups, recruiting volunteer attorneys to provide legal services, supervising client outreach, and coordinating nonprofit educational programs in New Jersey. Prior to joining the Partnership in 2003, Nancy worked in private practice with a focus on environmental law and real estate transactions. She is Co-Chair of the Pro Bono Committee of the New Jersey State Bar Association. Nancy also has served as a trustee of Children on the Green, which provides child care to Morris County families, including low-income and homeless families, and of the Passaic River Coalition. She also serves on the committee of Boy Scout Troop 139, and volunteers with her local Girl Scout Service Unit.
	Priya S. Morganstern, Director, Hartford Program. Prior to joining the Partnership, Priya spent several years as Director of the Nonprofit Pro Bono Initiative, a community pro bono service program providing direct legal services to nonprofits. Prior to directing NPBI, Priya was Counsel at Day, Berry & Howard LLP (now Day Pitney) in its Hartford office, where she was a member of the Firm's Health Law and Tax-Exempt Organizations practice groups and an active member of the Firm’s Pro Bono Committee. Priya received her Bachelor of Science degree from the State University of New York and her law degree from Boston University School of Law, where she was a G. Joseph Tauro Scholar and a Paul J. Liacos Scholar. Priya is a member of the Connecticut Bar Association’s Pro Bono Committee, and serves on the Board of the Connecticut Appleseed Center and the national Foundation for the Advancement of Midwifery. She is also a member of the Social Action Committee of her synagogue.
	Maurice K. Segall is Director of the New York & Fairfield County Programs for the Pro Bono Partnership, a charity devoted to providing free business legal assistance to nonprofit organizations in Westchester County and the lower New York Hudson Valley, and all of Connecticut and New Jersey. Maurice provides direct legal services to nonprofit groups, coordinates and supervises the work of staff and volunteer attorneys, and frequently lectures on legal issues for nonprofits and attorneys. He is an honors graduate of both the University of Delaware and Albany Law School of Union University. Maurice served for many years as the chairperson of the Pro Bono Committee of the Stamford/Norwalk Regional Bar Association. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Fairfield County Bar Foundation, and has served on the boards of several other Connecticut nonprofit agencies including Family and Children’s Agency (FCA), the Connecticut Consortium for Law and Citizenship Education, Connecticut Legal Services and Curtain Call, and currently serves on the Risk Management Committee of FCA. He is the founder and coordinator of the Stamford/Norwalk High School Mock Trial Competition, now in its 20th year. In 1996 Maurice was awarded the Liberty Bell Award from the Stamford/Norwalk Regional Bar for outstanding community service, the first practicing attorney ever to receive this honor.
	Staff Attorneys
	Courtney Darts, Staff Attorney, is a graduate of Fairfield University and Fordham University School of Law, where she was a member of the Stein Scholars Program in Public Interest Law. Prior to joining the Partnership, Courtney was in private practice at the law firm Kelley Drye & Warren LLP. She is admitted to the bar in New York and Connecticut.
	Christine Michelle Duffy, is Senior Staff Attorney with the Pro Bono Partnership. Prior to joining the Partnership, Christine initially was in a private law practice for twelve years, where she had a varied practice. Then, for twelve years, she was the chief compliance officer and chief labor and employment counsel for a leading international environmental services company. Christine has written and lectured extensively on a variety of matters, including labor and employment law, administrative and civil practice, ethics and compliance, and professional responsibility. Christine serves or has served on the boards and committees of several organizations, including the Board of Visitors of Fenway Health, the Board of Directors of the New Jersey chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel, the Advisory Board of Seton Hall Preparatory School, the Editorial Board of the New Jersey Law Journal, and the Supreme Court of New Jersey Committee on Civil Practice.
	Leslie Y. Kimball, Senior Staff Attorney, graduated cum laude from University of San Francisco Law School and, prior to joining the Partnership, was in private practice for over 20 years, most recently with the law firm of Hogan & Hartson LLP. Leslie's private practice included a focus on employment law issues, counseling employers of all sizes. Leslie is in charge of the Partnership’s Westchester Child Care Center Initiative, a new program focusing on legal issues regularly faced by nonprofit day care centers.
	Sarah D. Persily, Senior Staff Attorney, is a graduate of the Harvard Law School and the University of Michigan, where she graduated magna cum laude and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Prior to joining the Partnership in 2006, Sarah worked at Proskauer Rose LLP and then at IBM. At Proskauer and IBM, Sarah’s practice focused on mergers and acquisitions, private equity, and other corporate transactions. She also has experience with corporate governance and a wide range of commercial agreements. Sarah has worked in the non-profit sector as well, including in development at The New York Public Library and as an intern at the Child Care Resource Center in Cambridge, MA and at the Detroit Institute of Arts. Sarah has been involved as a volunteer with various social service organizations in Westchester.
	Administrative Staff
	Seraphim Flaherty is the Administrative Assistant for the Hartford office. She earned her B.A. in English from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. She has experience working in the legal field, as well as experience working in an editorial and development capacity for a variety of nonprofit organizations
	Kathy Genova, Development Associate, has a BA from SUNY Albany where she graduated magna cum laude and a MPA from Marist College. She has spent the last decade working in higher education and for nonprofits. Prior to joining the Partnership, she worked in Development where her focus was on grant writing and Raiser’s Edge administration.
	Jessica Markowitz, Director of Finance and Administration. She has been with the Partnership since its inception. She is a graduate of Baruch College and Purchase College, where she was active in student government, worked at the campus women's health clinic and was an intern at the college's peer counseling hotline.
	Lisa Rosenbloom, Director of Development, is a graduate of Smith College and Stanford University. She has twenty years' experience as a not-for-profit fundraiser, including as Co-Director of the Alumnae Fund for Mount Holyoke College, Associate Vice President and Director of Development for Marymount College/Tarrytown, and Director of Development for the Lienhard School of Nursing and School of Education at Pace University. She is on the Board of Directors and the Finance Committee of the Ossining Children's Center, which has provided nurturing, cognitively stimulating day care for children of low and moderate income working families since 1895. She has served on the Smith College Alumnae Fund Committee and as a Class Fund Agent. Ms. Rosenbloom is a member of the Westchester Associate of Development Officers and the Alliance for Nonprofit Governance.
	Valerie Sanders is the Administrative Assistant for the White Plains office. She is a graduate of Pace University with a degree in Office Information Systems Technology. Valerie has a diverse professional background that include positions at corporate, educational and government entities.
	Marlene Taylor is the Administrative Assistant for the New Jersey office. She worked previously in the publishing industry for daily, weekly and trade publications. She attended the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York for Fashion Design.
Volunteers
	Norman Alt, is a retired, corporate attorney with transactional and regulatory experience. He holds a JD from the University of Pennsylvania and an LLM in Trade Regulation from NYU. Norman has law firm and federal government experience, and has been Vice President and Chief Counsel of a major specialty chemicals company as well as General Counsel of the country’s largest dialysis provider. In addition to his work at the Pro Bono Partnership, he also provides legal services to several other non-profit corporations including one which assists consumers who are victims of unfair debt collection practices. He is Vice President and a Director of a land conservation trust in Maine.
	`Len Andrew,` `has worked as a volunteer with the Partnership since its inception. Len has more than 30 years of experience at IBM, retiring in 1999 as Associate General Counsel. Len has worked with many of the Partnership's clients. He is also the editor of the "Employment Law Manual for Non-Profit Organizations" published on the Partnership's website, and is currently editing another publication for the Partnership on laws affecting child care centers.` `Len serves on the boards of various nonprofit organizations, and he is a member of the Commercial and E-Commerce panels of the American Arbitration Association. In 2001, Len was named "Pro Bono Counsel of the Year" by the Senior Lawyers Division of the American Bar Association.`
	Lori Hauser, a graduate of the New York University School of Law, started working as a volunteer with the Partnership in the spring of 2008. An experienced legal writer, researcher and editor, Lori has revised and updated articles and information available on the Partnership's website and researched issues important to Partnership clients. In addition to her service as a volunteer attorney for the Partnership, Lori currently works as a freelance legal writer and editor for several national legal publishers.
	Maureen E. McTernan, is a cum laude graduate of Seton Hall University School of Law. After a few years in private practice, Maureen spent a decade in the law department of Prudential Insurance Company of America where she served as Assistant and Associate General Counsel for a number of business units. Her primary areas of responsibility were reinsurance and insurance regulation and coverage, and corporate governance issues. Maureen has served on the boards of various parent-teacher and athletic booster organizations. Returning to the legal profession after a hiatus, Maureen graduated from the Pace Law School New Directions program in December 2008, and is now volunteering for the Partnership.