Deborah Berkman is the Director of the Shelter and Economic Stability Project at New York Legal Assistance Group’s (NYLAG’s) Public Benefits Unit. Deborah advocates for single adults and families in need to be provided with habitable emergency shelter and housing subsidies so that they may transition to permanent housing. Deborah also represents these and other low-income clients in accessing public benefits, including cash public assistance, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits (food stamps) and Medicaid. Formerly, Deborah worked in NYLAG’s Special Litigation Unit bringing class action and other impact litigation based on systemic denials of rights or benefits.

Deborah is also employed as an Adjunct Clinical Law Professor at Brooklyn Law School, teaching classes relating to poverty, public interest and civil rights law.

Prior to these positions, Deborah spent her career fighting on behalf of the disenfranchised at the New York Civil Liberties Union, the Sylvia Rivera Law Project and in private practice.