July 1, 2019

Employee Celebrates 50 Year Anniversary Working for Legal Aid

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 27, 2019
Contact: Thomas Navin, Development Director
Community Legal Aid
Phone: (413) 727-7115
Email: tnavin@cla-ma.org

Employee Celebrates 50 Year Anniversary Working for Legal Aid

Community Legal Aid wishes to congratulate staff member and Richmond resident Judith Herberg, who recently celebrated her 50 year anniversary of working for the organization and its predecessor agencies, Western Massachusetts Legal Services and Berkshire Legal Services.

In 1969 Judith saw a help wanted ad for what was then known as Berkshire Legal Services. The organization had just opened the first office on Dewey Ave in Pittsfield, and needed a secretary. At the time, Judith had been working at General Electric, but found the technical subject matter in her department less than interesting.

Much to the dismay of her parents, she left her job at GE to take a job at this fledgling nonprofit legal organization. “My parents thought I was crazy to leave the security of a good job at GE to work at this unknown organization, but I was so bored at GE, I wanted to do something different,” says Herberg.

For the past 50 years, Herberg has continued to not be bored in her job, and in fact has found her work very interesting, noting  “Days just go by, you don’t have to watch the clock. Every day is different.”

Helping the poor and elderly residents of Berkshire County is also part of what keeps Herberg motivated. “I love the people I work with, and know how hard they work. It is great to work with people who care about what they do, and care about helping these clients.”

Judith says it has been interesting to watch the organization transform from what was a scrappy new nonprofit into a very professional and well-run organization. She has also seen the organization increase its effort to have the most impact possible on the community.  Herberg mused, “Over the years, we realized we have to identify priorities and make sure we are concentrating on the most important cases, those that will have the most impact on our clients. We can’t take every case that comes in the door, so we want to do the work that is most important and crucial.”

Community Legal Aid is incredibly grateful to Judith for her dedication and commitment to our organization and clients over the past 50 years.

Community Legal Aid (CLA) is the non-profit civil legal aid program providing free civil (non-criminal) legal help for the low-income and elderly residents of Central and Western Massachusetts. With full-time offices in Pittsfield, Fitchburg, Northampton, Springfield, and Worcester, CLA helps people access safe and stable housing; get unemployment, disability and other benefits to stabilize their income; break free from domestic violence; and obtain needed services in school.  CLA also has a satellite office in North Adams.  Community Legal Aid works to assure fairness for all in the justice system, protecting homes, livelihoods, health and families.