Staff

Samantha J. Morton is Executive Director of Medical Legal Partnership | Boston (MLP | Boston). She previously served as Deputy Director (2006-08) and Staff Attorney (2003-05) at the Medical-Legal Partnership for Children, the precursor organization to MLP | Boston which housed both national and local programs. Ms. Morton has focused on sustainability strategies, preventive law orientation, pro bono capacity-building, ethics and confidentiality, and immigration advocacy in the MLP context. She spearheaded the successful “adoption” of four Boston-area health clinics by law firm partners; this model is now being replicated by the American Bar Association through the ABA Medical-Legal Partnerships Pro Bono Support Project. Ms. Morton has published and presented extensively on MLP practice.

Ms. Morton currently is a member of the Boston Bar Association (BBA) Health Law Section Steering Committee, and also co-chairs the BBA’s Delivery of Legal Services Section. In 2004-05, she was a BBA Public Interest Leadership Program fellow. Ms. Morton has served as a Lecturer on Law at New England Law | Boston and as a member of the Massachusetts Bar Association’s Health Law Section Council. Before joining MLP | Boston in 2003, Ms. Morton was a litigation associate at WilmerHale (formerly Hale and Dorr LLP), and served as a judicial clerk to the Honorable Morton A. Brody of the United States District Court for the District of Maine. She is a graduate of the University of Michigan School of Law and Cornell University. 

Meg joined MLP | Boston as the Operations Manager in October 2012. Meg has a long history working with nonprofit organizations dedicated to social change. Prior to joining MLP | Boston, Meg worked at The Access Project (TAP), a nonprofit working to strengthen community action, promote social change, and improve health  especially for those who are most vulnerable. At TAP, she was responsible for the day-to-day operation and management of the office including financial management, administrative staff management and space and facilities management. She has also worked at the Asian American Civic Association (AACA) working with their job training programs, providing case management and job readiness assistance.

JoHanna Flacks is the Legal Director at Medical-Legal Partnership | Boston (MLP | Boston), among other things serving as a liaison to all of MLP | Boston's private bar partners.  Before joining MLP | Boston in 2006, JoHanna was in private practice, and provided pro bono services to the Cape Cod Anti-Discrimination Task Force in its campaign to establish the Barnstable County Human Rights Commission. Prior to that, she served as Assistant General Counsel for the Boston Public Health Commission, and Senior Investigator for the Boston Fair Housing Commission. She began her career as a labor-side employment discrimination litigation associate. JoHanna graduated from the University of Oklahoma College of Law and Brandeis University

Carmen Palacios is a paralegal with Medical-Legal Partnership | Boston. Carmen is a member of the Income Supports Team specializing in public benefits advocacy. She is originally from Chile and has a Bachelor degree from the University of Chile. Prior to joining MLP | Boston, Carmen worked as a Financial Eligibility Case Manager for the Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance. She has also worked as a paralegal with Greater Boston Legal Services.

Rajan Sonik is a 2012-14 Staff Attorney and Equal Justice Works Fellow with MLP | Boston. His work focuses primarily around advocacy for children with sickle cell disease (SCD). Through his project, Rajan aims to: (1) work with clinicians to develop and maintain systems of detecting the resource and legal needs of families of children with SCD as early as possible so that the appropriate services may be delivered before there is a negative impact on health, (2) provide direct legal services in the areas of education, public benefits, and housing (with a focus on serving families of children with SCD who are referred to MLP | Boston by clinician partners); and (3) work with families and clinician-advocates on broader policy projects to improve the health and well-being of children with SCD. If Rajan's project is successful, he hopes that it can serve as a model of interdisciplinary care for other families with children with SCD and children with other chronic illnesses. More information about Equal Justice Works and Rajan's fellowship can be found at http://equaljusticeworks.org/node/77897. 

Education:
J.D., Harvard Law School, 2012
M.P.H., University of California, Davis, 2009
A.B. in Biochemical Sciences, Harvard College, 2007
 

Fatima Sammy is a Research Assistant with Medical-Legal Partnership | Boston. She supports data collection, aggregation, and analysis on a range of research and evaluation efforts underway with the program. Fatima was awarded an MPH from the University of New Hampshire and completed her undergraduate studies at Williams College.