Madeline Weaver Blanchette

Senior Supervising Attorney, Family Preservation Project

Maddy joined Community Legal Aid after a decade in a law firm she co-founded specializing in the zealous defense, at trial and on appeal, of parents and children facing the overwhelming power of the Department of Children and Families. Fifteen years before graduating from law school, she received a Master of Social Work degree and worked extensively in community crisis services. Immediately after law school, she served as a law clerk to the justices of the Massachusetts Superior Court. In 2021, she received New England Innocence Project’s “Arc of Justice Award” for her work in freeing and exonerating James Watson who served forty years of incarceration for a wrongful murder conviction. Maddy lives with her husband in downtown Northampton, MA, where she is politically active in affordable housing (including being the current Board President of Valley Community Development), the arts, and animal rights.