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The Latest from CoGenerate

Event Recording: Book Talk: Cogeneration in the Age of AI

Event Recording: Book Talk: Cogeneration in the Age of AI

Simple question: Do you miss human connection when you use self-checkout at the grocery store? Complex question: How is cogeneration threatened by AI, profit-driven “efficiencies,” and automation — and what can we do about it? Allison Pugh, author of the book The Last...

Putting Two Things Together

Putting Two Things Together

On Friday, May 15, I had the great honor to address the 2026 graduates of Drew University, including the undergraduate College of Liberal Arts, the Theological School, and the Caspersen School of Graduate Studies. I'm very grateful to Drew's remarkable President...

Introducing the CoGen Voices Fellows

Introducing the CoGen Voices Fellows

Across the country, young people and older people are stepping up as civic leaders. But too often, they do this critical work with peers, in age-segregated spaces. Young people work without the benefit of older generations who bring lived experience, networks, and a...

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Leah Margulies

LawHelp/NY
Purpose Prize Fellow 2010

Margulies is providing low-income and other vulnerable New Yorkers with free, online legal information and referrals to complimentary legal services.

After years working in the nonprofit sector, Leah Margulies moved to the private sector, needing the income to support her young child. After 10 years as a technology consultant, Margulies missed nonprofit work.

“I especially missed feeling that my energy was contributing to building a better society,” says Margulies. So when a friend asked her to lead LawHelp/NY, then a leaderless and underperforming legal aid website, Margulies jumped at the opportunity, though it meant significantly less income.

In 2009, more than 2 million New Yorkers went to court without attorneys, often facing skilled adversaries representing landlords, mortgage banks or credit card companies. For the poor and unrepresented, LawHelp/NY is the first line of defense.

The website lists eligibility and intake information for more than 650 free legal aid projects and makes available thousands of know-your-rights and self-help resources in 35 languages, providing explanations of complicated legal problems in 15 areas of law.

Under Margulies’ leadership, LawHelp/NY has added several new innovative components, including LiveHelp, a real-time chat feature that navigates visitors to extensive community-level outreach and the specific legal resources that answer their questions.

As a result, LawHelp/NY went from a little-known resource to one widely used by libraries, social service agencies and legal aid offices throughout the state. With a budget of less than $400,000, LawHelp/NY has seen usage triple to 377,343 visitors, mostly low-income, viewing more than 2 million pages of legal information in 2009.