Montel A. Cherry is the Director of Litigation for Children’s Rights at Mobilization for Justice, Inc. Children’s Rights consist of the Warren J. Sinsheimer Children’s Rights Program, the Kinship Caregiver Project, and the Immigration Law Project. The Children’s Rights Program provides advice and representation to low-income parents of students with disabilities seeking appropriate special education services and school placements from the New York City Department of Education. The Children’s Rights Program also assists children with mental illness and their families through medical-legal partnerships with Bellevue, Kings County, Harlem, and Lincoln Hospitals. The Immigration Law Project provides direct advocacy and representation to low-income individuals and families seeking assistance in either humanitarian- or family-based immigration matters. The Kinship Caregiver Project represents low-income kinship caregivers seeking legal custody, guardianship or adoption assistance, and links those it cannot help with private pro bono attorneys and trains these attorneys to represent families in court. Ms. Cherry also directly supervises the Government Benefits Project that assists individuals with legal problems relating to Public Assistance, SNAP/Food Stamps, Medicaid/Medicare, and Disability Benefits; and the Drivers Protection Project, which provides advice and representation to low-income taxi drivers facing civil penalties against their licenses.

Prior to coming to Mobilization for Justice, Inc., Ms. Cherry was a Disability Law Specialist at Manhattan Legal Services, where she represented adults and children with physical and mental impairments in appealing their denial of disability benefits. Initially she was hired at the former Harlem Legal Services, as a staff attorney for the government benefits unit specializing in both public assistance and disability law. She also worked as a decisions editor at the New York Law Journal. Ms. Cherry received her J.D. from CUNY School of Law and a B.A. in Sociology and African Studies from SUNY Stony Brook.