Bennett Lerner has been a Managing Attorney with Neighborhood Legal Services Program since May 2007. During this time he has supervised staff attorneys in the Northeast and Northwest offices in all areas of poverty law, providing high-quality civil legal services to low-income individuals and families in DC. In addition, he has helped manage and supervise NLSP's Landlord & Tenant Attorney of the Day and Small Claims Resource Center Projects. From 2003 to 2006, he practiced as a staff attorney in the Gallup Office of the New Mexico Legal Aid. In this position, he provided legal services in housing, family, consumer, public benefits, and Native American law matters to indigent clients in the poorest two counties in New Mexico, which include the Zuni and Navajo Reservations. From 1998 through 2003, he was managing and supervising attorney of the Community Legal Assistance Services Program (CLASP) for Shelter Legal Services in Cambridge, Massachusetts. CLASP provides free legal services to homeless individuals and families in Cambridge, through the volunteer efforts of law students in the Boston area, recruited, trained, and supervised by CLASP.

Prior to his work at CLASP, for many years he had his own law practice in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he concentrated in housing, immigration, and disability benefits matters. Additionally, he worked with the housing unit of the Community Legal Services in Cambridge representing clients pro bono for more than five years. He also taught Housing Law to paralegals at Roxbury Community College. For his contribution to legal services and to the principle of equal justice under the law, he was awarded the Massachusetts Bar Association’s 1997 Public Service “Pro Bono Publico Award.” Bennett earned his B.A. from Brandeis University and his J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law. He is a member of the DC, MA, NJ, NY, and NM (inactive) Bars.