May 27, 2022

Community Legal Aid’s Priscilla Pettengill Honored at WCBA’s Annual Law Day

BY LAURA HANCOCK BARRY, DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR, COMMUNITY LEGAL AID(508) 425-2798 / LHBARRY@cla-ma.org

Community Legal Aid, a non-profit organization that provides free civil (non-criminal) legal services to low-income and elderly residents of Central and Western Massachusetts, congratulates Priscilla Pettengill for receiving the 2022 Liberty Bell Award from the Worcester County Bar Association (WCBA). Priscilla is a paralegal in Community Legal Aid’s Elder Unit and works out of the organization’s Worcester office.
The WCBA presents the Liberty Bell Award at its annual Law Day Celebration, which was held on April 29, 2022. The award honors a non-attorney for significant contributions to the community. Priscilla was nominated for the award by Rachel Shannon Brown, Senior Supervising Attorney for the Elder Law Unit at Community Legal Aid. Said Brown, “Priscilla is a role model for the legal services community. I have worked closely with Priscilla since 2014 and I can say with confidence that she is one of the many unsung heroes of civil legal aid. She works to uphold the principle that everyone is equal under the law, the idea that all low-income and elderly people should have ready access to legal services to meet their basic needs, and the concept that everyone must be treated fairly in their pursuit of justice.”

Priscilla has spent more than two decades in civil legal services. Her work started at the Massachusetts Justice Project (MJP), an agency which provided legal advice, education, referrals, and direct representation to low-income residents of Central and Western Massachusetts. In 2004, Priscilla received the Equal Justice Award from MJP.

Priscilla began specializing in elder law in 2011, when, while at MJP, she staffed a statewide Senior Legal Helpline project while continuing to assist individual clients and engaging in outreach activities with senior centers, councils on aging, and other agencies providing services to elders. When MJP merged with Community Legal Aid in 2014, Priscilla became the Intake Paralegal for the organization’s elder work across its five-county service area, a role she has held to this day. The Elder Law Unit of Community Legal Aid assists persons 60 years old and older with issues involving housing; SSI, Social Security Disability Insurance, and other Social Security issues; access to healthcare benefits including MassHealth and Medicare; nursing home rights; SNAP (food stamps) and other benefits; family law, including physical abuse; and financial exploitation. For over a decade, Priscilla has helped hundreds of clients while supervising, training, and mentoring non-attorney volunteers and interns, and she is known to all as a committed and caring professional.

A graduate of Algonquin Regional High School, in Northborough, MA, Priscilla obtained a B.A. in Spanish from Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA, and thereafter taught Spanish at Penn State. She then returned to Massachusetts for a career in public service. Currently a resident of Hampden County, Priscilla is also highly creative and artistic. As a Halloween enthusiast, she leads her colleagues in an annual office Halloween event and assembles incredibly imaginative Halloween costumes every year.

About Community Legal Aid:
CLA 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.