Community Legal Aid shifts leadership positions

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Community Legal Aid has shifted a couple of key leadership roles in order to better serve clients and community partners.

The nonprofit law firm recently announced attorneys Rachel Nader as new manager of its Volunteer Legal Services Program and Jeanne Charles as its new Legal Assistance to Victims manager.

The two new managers replace Jennifer van Dulmen, who previously oversaw both areas, and is stepping up as the organization’s first deputy director.

Nader, a Trumbull County native, has been with Legal Aid since 1999. As an attorney with the nonprofit law firm, she represented clients in housing matters, including foreclosures, evictions, land contracts, landlord-tenant, public housing and fair- housing matters. She also handled bankruptcies, consumer litigation, predatory lending, debt collection, utility shutoffs and other financial legal matters for both Legal Aid and for a private firm in Akron in the 1990s.

Charles began her career in Chicago, where her first legal experience was an as intern for a legal-aid clinic. Throughout her career, she sought opportunities to work with underrepresented populations, including her time working at the law offices of Al Hofeld Jr. in Chicago, where she represented homeowners in predatory lending cases.

Charles joined Legal Aid in 2014 as a staff attorney. A member of the family law team, she primarily represented victims of domestic violence before being named the team’s new manager at the end of last year.

Van Dulmen will be responsible for oversight of all client services, as well as day-to-day administration of legal programs, Legal Aid said in a news release.