Chair, Lowenstein Center for the Public Interest
Chair, Pro Bono Committee

As chair of the Lowenstein Center for the Public Interest Catherine Weiss spearheads the firm's pro bono program. Just as the firm has an unwavering commitment to engaging in meaningful pro bono work, Catherine's legal career has been dedicated to serving the public. A lifelong public interest lawyer, Catherine has served as the Director of the Division of Public Interest Advocacy in the New Jersey Department of the Public Advocate, as Deputy Director of the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, and as Director of the Reproductive Freedom Project in the national office of the ACLU.

Catherine is charged with ongoing implementation of the Center's mission to perform work of the highest quality in a manner that maximizes results for pro bono clients and causes. Her role involves selecting and managing the Center's pro bono matters, a task for which Catherine is well-suited as a result of her broad experience in management-level positions in nonprofits. Under her leadership, the Center has built strong relationships with local and national public interest and legal services organizations, and the firm has developed extensive experience in several areas of pro bono practice, including immigration, education and housing.

Catherine also maintains a substantive practice as a litigator on behalf of the firm's pro bono clients. She approaches matters with an appellate lawyer's eye toward constructing challenges to unjust laws or policies and winning decisions that reform the law. In addition to leading pro bono teams in impact litigation, she manages and participates in signature initiatives through which the firm provides individual representation, on an ongoing basis, to children in immigration proceedings; victims of persecution in asylum proceedings; survivors of domestic violence in seeking orders of protection; veterans in disability hearings; low-income individuals in bankruptcy proceedings; indigent criminal defendants in appealing their convictions; and nonprofit organizations seeking counsel and assistance in corporate and governance matters.