Staff

Matt Selig

is HLA's Executive Director. He has advocated for health care access for lower-income consumers since the early 1990’s. Matt began his professional career as the staff assistant for the Chief Counsel for Senator Edward M. Kennedy’s staff on the United States Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources (now known as the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions). In Senator Kennedy’s office he participated in advancing national health care initiatives including proposals to expand access to health insurance and strenghen public health programs. He left Senator Kennedy’s office to attend Suffolk University Law School where he graduated magna cum laude in 1997. Matt then worked in the Massachusetts State House as a legislative aide to State Representative Kay Khan who now co-chairs the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Children, Families and Persons with Disabilities. In the State House, Matt drafted and helped enact various legislative and budgetary provisions including measures to improve mental health services and correctional health care. Since joining HLA in 2005, he has represented and advised hundred of clients who had been unjustly denied health care access. Matt also managed HLA’s Pro Bono Legal Network of volunteer lawyers which now includes over 100 members. He received his undergraduate degree from Washington University in St. Louis.

S. Stephen Rosenfeld

is the Volunteer Legal Adviser of Health Law Advocates. He is a specialist in health benefits law, including ERISA, health care consumer protection, long-term disability law and several related areas. He has litigated in all federal and state courts with jurisdiction in Massachusetts, including the United States Supreme Court, the First Circuit Court of Appeals, the Federal District Court for the District of Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, the Massachusetts Appeals Court and the Massachusetts Superior Court. He has served in the Executive Branch of Massachusetts Government as legal counsel to the Governor, and in the Department of the Attorney General, as chief of the Government Bureau. He has taught law at New York University, Northeastern University School of Law, and Boston College Law School.

Lorianne M. Sainsbury-Wong

is HLA’s Senior Staff Attorney. Her primary focus is implementation of health care reform and issues concerning medical debt and collection. She is also currently working on the Hospital Accountability Project. Prior to joining HLA she was employed over five years at a multi-lingual civil litigation law firm which included negotiation, mediation, arbitration and jury trials. Mrs. Wong is proficient in Spanish, and she is licensed to practice in Massachusetts state and federal courts, and she is admitted to practice in New Hampshire state courts. She gained professional experience as a neutral arbitrator with John Hancock regarding large-scale alternative dispute resolution, and she served as a pro-bono attorney at Greater Boston Legal Services’ Employment Unite where she co-authored “A Legal Guide for Newcomers to Massachusetts.” Mrs. Wong was a paralegal with Ropes & Gray, while attending law school at the New England School of Law, and earned an International Legal Studies Certificate while under the tutelage of the Honorable Justice M. Kennedy at the University of Salzburg.

Samuel Leadholm

is HLA’s Children’s Mental Health staff attorney. Prior to his work at HLA, he worked for three years as a litigation associate at a small Boston firm specializing in urban renewal and land use law. Before graduating from Northeastern University School of Law in 2004, he completed internships with U.S. Magistrate Judge Joyce London Alexander, Boston University’s Office of the General Counsel, Posternak, Blankstein & Lund and the Public Health Advocacy Institute. He has served as the Chairperson for the Mass Mental Health Center’s Human Rights Committee since 2005 and worked with adults with mental illness and addictions in a supported housing program before entering law school. He is a graduate of Wesleyan University.

Megan Mahle

is a Staff Attorney with HLA. Her work at HLA covers a variety of areas, including medical debt, children’s mental health, and oral health access. Prior to joining HLA, Megan worked at Community Legal Aid Society, Inc., in Wilmington, Delaware, representing tenants in subsidized housing disputes, victims of fair housing violations and families involved with the child welfare system. Megan was also previously employed at the Center for Family Representation, Inc., in New York City, where she represented families in child welfare proceedings. A 2002 graduate of New York University School of Law, Megan is admitted to practice in Delaware, New York and Pennsylvania.

Robert MacPherson

is HLA’s first Chief Operating Officer. He is responsible for overseeing the administrative operations including support, payroll, financial reporting and systems. Prior to HLA, Bob worked in operations and accounting at BankBoston/Fleet Bank. He attended the University of Massachusetts and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Bob recently obtained a certificate in non-profit management from Northeastern University.

Matthew Fox

is a Staff Attorney at HLA. Prior to joining HLA he worked as an associate in the litigation department at Ropes & Gray, LLP, and as a law clerk to Hon. Nathaniel Gorton, U.S. District Judge for the District of Massachusetts. Matt has also work as a paralegal at a mid-sized corporate law firm in Boston and as an intern in the Office of the Attorney General of New York. He is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of Michigan Law School and of Harvard University.

Alyssa Minsky

is a Staff Attorney at HLA. Alyssa graduated summa cum laude from Suffolk University Law School in May 2009. During law school, Alyssa interned at the Department of Social Services, the Major Crimes Unit of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and Ropes & Gray LLP. She graduated cum laude from Dartmouth College, where she majored in Psychology and French.

Audrey Perlow

is a Staff Attorney at HLA and is HLA’s current Parmet Fellow. Her healthcare experience includes internships with Partners HealthCare, Office of General Counsel; Harvard’s Center for Public Health Preparedness; the Brookline Health Department, and the American Heart Association. Audrey has also interned with the U.S. Senate, Committee on the Judiciary; Prince, Lobel, Glovsky, & Tye; the Honorable Gary Katzmann of the Massachusetts Appeals Court; and the DC Public Defender Service. Prior to graduate school she was an emergency management consultant. Audrey is a graduate of Georgetown University, the Harvard School of Public Health, and Northeastern University School of Law.

Mary Orosz

is a Staff Attorney at HLA. She graduated from Boston College Law School in May 2009. During law school, she interned with Community Action Program Legal Services (CAPLAW) and Ropes & Gray LLP. In June 2006, she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Dartmouth College where she majored in English.

Mary Lavelle

is HLA’s Program and Development Associate. Mary graduated from Northeastern University in 2008 with a bachelors degree in communication studies and a minor in business administration. While attending Northeastern, Mary participated in the co-op program, a program where students alternate between six months of full time work experience and six months of class. Prior to working at HLA, Mary worked at the National Initiative for Children’s Healthcare Quality (NICHQ) as a marketing assistant and a project coordinator, working on the Childhood Obesity Action Network project and a patient safety initiative. Mary was also previously employed at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, where she worked as a program assistant on the Marathon and Running Programs team.

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