Feldman Shepherd is pleased to announce that co-founding shareholder Carol Nelson Shepherd was honored by the Homeless Advocacy Project (HAP) for her more than 15 years of providing legal assistance to individuals and families who face homelessness in Philadelphia. Shepherd received the honor along with a group of other long-serving board members at HAP’s annual benefit on October 13, 2022, at The Mütter Museum of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia.
Established in 1990, HAP is the only legal services organization dedicated to providing direct civil legal services to individuals and families experiencing homelessness in Philadelphia. HAP also advocates for the needs of the city’s homeless population, promoting positive changes in policies that impact those needs. Annually HAP holds more than 100 legal clinics at 25 sites throughout Philadelphia, reaching out to clients in places where they live and eat, such as homeless shelters, transitional housing sites and soup kitchens. Since HAP’s first legal clinic in December 1990, its staff and 350 volunteers have helped more than 60,000 people and have provided more than $106 million worth of free legal services to clients experiencing homelessness.
Shepherd served as President of HAP’s Board of Directors from 2015 to 2016 and was a member of the Board of Directors from 2005 to 2018. She has also co-chaired multiple annual benefits.
At Feldman Shepherd, Shepherd represents clients who have been catastrophically injured by medical malpractice, with a particular emphasis on helping children who have sustained life-long conditions, most commonly cerebral palsy, due to birth and neonatal injuries. For more than 40 years, she has vigorously advocated for her clients in claims against healthcare providers arising from obstetric and childbirth injuries, delayed diagnosis of cancer, improperly performed surgery, and other types of substandard medical care.
“It has been a true privilege to serve as a member of the Board and Board Chair of HAP. The essential advocacy that HAP provides to individuals and families who have nowhere else to turn for legal help, and its influential work in promoting policies to reduce homelessness in Philadelphia, is a mission we must all support. I will always be grateful for the opportunity to work with the dedicated staff, lawyers and fellow Board members who are so selflessly devoted to helping this most vulnerable population,” Shepherd said.
Alan M. Feldman, Co-Managing Shareholder and a co-founder of the firm with Shepherd, said “Carol’s long service with HAP has underscored our firm’s commitment to supporting legal services for the needy, and has encouraged other lawyers at our firm to engage in pro bono work. We’re delighted that her important contributions have been recognized by the Homeless Advocacy Project.”