Mid-Shore Pro Bono’s Board of Directors recently announced Meredith Lathbury Girard will serve as the non-profit’s Executive Director. Girard currently serves as Mid-Shore Pro Bono’s Managing Attorney and will begin as Executive Director when the current director Sandy Brown steps down from the position at the end of 2021.
Mid-Shore Pro Bono and a network of volunteer lawyers ensure access to the legal system and provide free or reduced-fee legal services for those who need legal help on the Eastern Shore.
“Sandy Brown has done an amazing job building up this organization,” said Girard. ‘Moving forward, I feel honored to help serve our communities in this role. Having access to legal representation in civil matters is important for everyone, regardless of anyone’s ability to pay.”
“Meredith’s work as our Managing Attorney has well-prepared her for this leadership position,” said Mid-Shore Pro Bono Board of Director President Tim Abeska. “She’s been instrumental as a volunteer attorney, and especially in managing our services and staff, working with the Board of Directors, and raising funds through grants and donations.”
Abeska says Girard spearheaded Mid-Shore Pro Bono’s Eastern Shore Eviction Prevention Collaboration, with the group’s eviction prevention partners now meeting monthly to share resources and coordinate services and attorney training.
Girard’s career centers around her passion for social justice and includes working in senior leadership positions with the Town Creek Foundation, Maryland Department of Natural Resources, the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy, and the Potomac Conservancy.
Girard is a long-standing member of the Maryland Bar, and presently serves on the Lower Shore Pro Bono Committee; Maryland State Bar Association Delivery of Legal Services Council; and as co-leader of Girl Scouts of the Chesapeake Bay Troop 855. Girard recently served on the Life and Health Planning Committee of the Attorney General’s Access to Justice COVID-19 Task Force.
Girard previously served as Co-Chair for the Chesapeake Bay Funders Network and the Washington Regional Food Funders Network; and as a member of the Chesapeake Foodshed Network Steering Team and the Maryland Environmental Trust Board of Trustees.
Girard earned her Juris Doctor and Master of Environmental Law degrees from Vermont Law School, graduating cum laude. She has a Bachelor of Arts in economics, and a minor in political science from Pennsylvania State University, where she graduated with honors.
Girard says she wants to create greater access to legal representation for all people and advocate for systemic solutions that give everyone a fair shot.
“Serving the local community is the central tenet of our mission,” said Abeska. “We’re here to help with legal assistance for all civil matters, while we help Meredith transition into her role as Executive Director this December.”
Mid-Shore Pro Bono was established in 2005 by local judges and lawyers to create a local agency dedicated to helping the Mid-Shore’s residents obtain access to legal assistance. Now Mid-Shore Pro Bono serves residents of the Eastern Shore with offices in Easton, Chestertown, and Salisbury, and a mission to ensure equal access to legal assistance in local communities, with more at midshoreprobono.org.
