March 29, 2023

Community Legal Aid Names Inês Kenney as Managing Attorney of its Fitchburg Office

BY Contact: Laura Hancock Barry(508) 425-2798 / lhbarry@cla-ma.org

Community Legal Aid, a nonprofit organization that provides free legal services to low-income and elderly residents of Central and Western Massachusetts, is pleased to announce that Inês Kenney has been named as Managing Attorney of its Fitchburg Office.

As Managing Attorney, Kenney will oversee a team of attorneys, paralegals, and support staff who provide civil (non-criminal) legal assistance to elders facing abuse or exploitation, at-risk students needing school-based services, victims of domestic violence seeking protective orders and/or family law assistance, individuals and families facing the threat of eviction and homelessness, and those in need of public benefits, including food stamps, Social Security/SSI, and unemployment compensation. She will also spearhead community outreach to the residents of northern Worcester County who may be eligible for services from Community Legal Aid.  Attorney Kenney joins a team of four other attorneys who manage Community Legal Aid’s offices in Worcester, Springfield, Northampton, Pittsfield, and Fitchburg.

Attorney Kenney brings a comprehensive background to her position as Managing Attorney. A 2016 graduate of Suffolk University Law School, Kenney worked for one year with Northeast Legal Aid’s Housing Unit as an AmeriCorps member. She then joined the Victim Rights Law Center, where she represented survivors of rape, sexual assault, and stalking in matters involving eviction defense, reasonable accommodations, the Title IX process in K-12 and college campuses, and abuse/harassment prevention orders. While in law school, Kenney participated in the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Clinic, where she assisted in creating a pro se family law guidebook for a tribal community in Connecticut and worked on a case for the legalization of community radio for tribal communities in Guatemala involving the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. She joined Community Legal Aid in 2021 as the Education Law staff attorney in the Fitchburg office where she represented students with special needs and students facing suspension or expulsion.

Born in Lisbon, Portugal, Kenney grew up in Western Mass and attended the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. An avid hiker, Kenney aspires to hike all 48 of New Hampshire’s “4,000 Footers.”

About Community Legal Aid:

Community Legal Aid provides free civil legal services to the low-income and elderly residents of the five counties of Western and Central Massachusetts (Berkshire, Franklin, Hampden, Hampshire, and Worcester), and maintains offices in Worcester, Fitchburg, Springfield, Northampton, and Pittsfield. CLA works to assure fairness for all in the justice system, protecting homes, livelihoods, health and families. For more information, please visit www.communitylegal.org.