Talk Justice: Episode 69

Featured Guests

Aili C. Monahan is the Director of the Pro Bono Partnerships Project (PBPP) at Northeast New Jersey Legal Services (NNJLS). In this role, Aili collaborates with PBPP staff and external legal partners to develop and deliver legal services to low-income clients residing in Hudson, Bergen and Passaic Counties. Through partnerships with local law firms, law schools, corporate legal in-house attorneys, and community organizations, PBPP offers legal services through both volunteer attorney representation and pro se clinic models.  As a recipient of a Pro Bono Innovation Fund grant from Legal Services Corporation, NNJLS’s PBPP is currently developing volunteer attorney training modules. These modules are designed to support and train attorneys in high-demand legal areas and will create client-facing modules that will empower clients to self-advocate.   

Prior to joining NNJLS in April 2023, Aili managed a solo law firm where she concentrated her legal practice on providing specialized in-house litigation services to the General Counsel’s offices of multi-state insurance companies.  As part of her solo practice, Aili also worked as a Pool Attorney for the Office of the Public Defender, Office of the Law Guardian, where she represented children who were in the foster care system in New Jersey.  Earlier in her career, Aili served as a Case Supervisor at Hudson County Court-Appointment Special Advocates (CASA), where she supervised CASA volunteers in their work to advocate for CASA’s goals of securing safe, permanent homes.  As a Case Supervisor, and one of the only attorneys on staff, Aili provided legal guidance to the staff and volunteers at Hudson County CASA, and assisted with program management.

Aili started her legal career as a commercial litigation attorney at a large firm in New Jersey and previously clerked for the Honorable Donald S. Coburn, P.J.A.D., in the Appellate Division of the Superior Court of New Jersey. Aili earned a B.A. in mathematics from Bryn Mawr College and a J.D. from Seton Hall University School of Law.

Bob Farrington is a Vice President, Assistant General Counsel at JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. (Chase), where he has worked for over 12 years.  For the past five years, Bob has served as a Manager in Chase’s Home Lending Litigation department.  Prior to this, Bob managed a team of 16 attorneys and non-attorneys in the Chase Legal Third-Party Oversight group.  During his tenure at Chase, Bob has been a dedicated and long-standing volunteer with Northeast New Jersey Legal Services (NNJLS) and the Pro Bono Partnership Project (PBPP), and has consistently demonstrated his commitment and legal acumen in furtherance of NNJLS’s mission to provide legal services to low-income individuals.  Bob has utilized his more than 25 years of legal experience by participating in numerous legal clinics with NNJLS over the years.

In furtherance of Bob’s commitment to pro bono and NNJLS, Bob was the recent recipient of the 2023-2024 JPMorgan Chase Legal Pro Bono Fellowship and will be working with PBPP for the next six months.  His selection came after a comprehensive review process and affirms Chase’s commitment to supporting legal pro bono and other volunteer service activities focused on strengthening communities, empowering families and advocating for vulnerable individuals. Each year, this distinguished fellowship is bestowed upon a single legal professional, enabling them to dedicate up to six months of their expertise in pro bono legal services to a deserving organization, such as NNJLS.

Prior to Chase, Bob was the lead litigation attorney for a law firm in New Jersey that concentrated on creditor’s rights issues and also served as in-house counsel for a mortgage servicing subsidiary of SLM Corp. (Sallie Mae). Bob received a B.S. from Montclair State University and a J.D. from Boston University School of Law.

Mytrang Nguyen, she/her, is Program Counsel for Pro Bono Innovation at the Legal Services Corporation (LSC) in Washington, D.C. where she is part of a team that manages LSC’s Pro Bono Innovation Fund, a $5 million annual competitive grant program that invests in efforts to creatively leverage pro bono and private resources in the delivery of legal services in low-income communities. To date, the Pro Bono Innovation Fund has invested over $40 million in effective pro bono models in legal aid. She previously served in leadership positions at Equal Justice Works and the Pro Bono Institute. Earlier in her career, she was an attorney in the Asian Outreach Unit at Greater Boston Legal Services and an Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Rights Division of the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office where she also served as the agency’s Asian Pacific American Community Liaison. She has volunteered extensively in immigrant communities and has served on the board of directors for a number of nonprofit and public interest organizations. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for the D.C. Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Synetic Theatre. She earned a bachelor’s degree in literature and economics at Simmons University and a J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law.

Host

Ronald S. Flagg was appointed President of the Legal Services Corporation effective February 20, 2020, and previously served as Vice President for Legal Affairs and General Counsel since 2013.  He previously practiced commercial and administrative litigation at Sidley Austin LLP for 31 years, 27 years as a partner. He chaired the firm’s Committee on Pro Bono and Public Interest Law for more than a decade.

Flagg served as president of the District of Columbia Bar in 2010-2011 and currently serves as Chair of the Bar’s Pro Bono Task Force.  He presently also chairs the board of the National Veterans Legal Services Program. He has also served as Chair of the District of Columbia Bar Pro Bono Committee, Chair of the Board of the AARP Legal Counsel for the Elderly, as a member of the American Bar Association’s House of Delegates, on LSC’s Pro Bono Task Force, and as a member of the Board of the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, the Board of the District of Columbia Access to Justice Foundation, and  the District of Columbia Judicial Nomination Commission.

Flagg graduated with honors from the University of Chicago and cum laude from Harvard Law School. He began his career as a law clerk to Judge Myron L. Gordon, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin and as attorney-advisor in the United States Department of Justice, Office of Intelligence Policy.