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For over 25 years, Lenny has tirelessly devoted himself to promoting access to justice and equality rights for low-income individuals; defending those who require legal services, those who provide the services and the integrity of legal aid clinics and the Ontario legal aid system itself.
After graduating from McGill Law School, Lenny articled at Toronto’s Parkdale Community Legal Services in 1986, becoming a staff lawyer at Neighbourhood Legal Services (NLS) the following year. This was at a time when the clinic system in Ontario was barely a decade old. Lenny went on to become Director of Legal Services at NLS in 1994, and at the same time served on the boards of various community-based, not-for-profit groups, such as the Industrial Accidents Victims’ Group of Ontario Community Clinics.
In 2000, Lenny accepted a position at the newly created Association of Community Legal Clinics of Ontario, taking on his current position as Executive Director of that organization in 2001. In this role, and as a member of the Alliance for Sustainable Legal Aid, Lenny has been a visible and vocal leader in the campaign to preserve and enhance the legal aid system and defend clinics in the face of frequent threats and challenges. He has continually fought to ensure that basic principles of access to justice are not compromised in the name of fiscal restraint. He has published articles on the clinic system, poverty law and not-for-profit governance. Lenny has helped to educate the public and government about the valuable role played by clinics, the enormity of the challenges facing low-income populations in Ontario and the need for additional resources to combat the impact of poverty and social isolation on our society. In doing so, he is not only a legal aid leader, but an inspiration to numerous other lawyers who have followed his example.