Lawyers for Civil Rights Staff Attorney Sophia Hall was named one of Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly’s lawyers of the year for 2020.
A graduate of Boston College Law School, Hall develops civil rights litigation in areas including voting rights, employment and education for LCR. In one of her more prominent cases, Hall brought suit against the state’s system of background checks for child care workers. Hall’s plaintiff in the case, Tara Gregory, lost her job of 20 years after a background check turned up an assault charge from a fight she had as a teenager. The LCR lawsuit led to internal policy changes that ended the practice of automatic child care worker bans.
The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Economic Justice provides free legal services to individuals and small businesses in disadvantaged communities. Over the last year, they have grown from receiving four intakes a week to receiving more than ten intakes a day. They have 30 active cases tackling civil rights issues in education, employment, policing, and housing. Since January 1, they have served more than 100 minority-owned small businesses across Massachusetts.
Prior to joining LCR, Hall was a staff attorney with AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts, New England’s largest HIV/AIDS legal service organization. As a staff attorney, she represented low-income individuals living with HIV/AIDS in a wide range of legal matters including discrimination, housing, and public benefits cases.
