Melanie Gleason

Staff Attorney, Medical-Legal Partnership

Melanie Gleason joined Lawyers for Civil Rights in 2020. Melanie is expanding LCR’s Medical-Legal Partnership with Massachusetts General Hospital’s community health centers in Charlestown, Everett, and Revere. In her work, Melanie uses a community lawyering model working closely alongside her clients. 

Prior to joining LCR, Melanie founded and directed Attorney on the Move, an entirely crowdfunded five-year pro bono project, practicing public interest law in over a dozen sites across the country, and collaborating with legal and community-based organizations. As part of this project, she worked for two years representing asylum seekers and responding to the family separation crisis at the border with Mexico. While at the border, she also served as the Pro Bono Coordinator for Las Americas, launching the organization’s first pro bono initiative in El Paso, Texas. 

As a certified professional coach and Mindfulness Stress-Based Reduction (MBSR) instructor-in-training with the UC-San Diego School of Medicine, Melanie uses holistic advocacy to further support her clients and communities at-large.

Melanie is a 2014 graduate of Golden Gate University School of Law, where she completed the part-time JD/MBA program while working as a community organizer full-time. Prior to becoming an attorney, Melanie served as an organizer for national progressive organizations, including MoveOn.org, and championed electoral, legislative, and issue-based campaigns. Melanie was recently selected as an Op-Ed Project Public Voices Fellow. She is an adjunct instructor in the master’s program on Social Justice and Community Organizing with Prescott College.

Read more about Melanie in the Boston Business Journal, the Bay State Banner and El Planeta.