Michelle Burrell

Michelle Burrell is the Project Director for Legal Services NYC’s Queens office. Michelle began her career as a Staff Attorney at the Brooklyn Family Defense Practice, then an office of Legal Services NYC. She then became a staff attorney in the Matrimonial & Family Law Unit at New York Legal Assistance Group, (NYLAG) where she represented litigants in matrimonial, custody, visitation, and family offense cases. She comes back to Legal Services NYC from the Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem, (NDS) where she was the Managing Attorney of the Family Defense Practice. In that role, she managed a staff of attorneys, social workers, parent advocates, and paralegals that provide legal representation to indigent parents and family caregivers who have been accused of abuse and neglect in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan. She is a graduate of CUNY Law School, where she was a member of the Black Law Students Association and a member of the Law Review. She received her BA at the University of Ottawa, where she concentrated her studies in Communications and Philosophy. She was born and raised in Toronto, Canada.