Legal Aid Hires New Director

New Haven’s legal aid agency has hired a new executive director.

The State Street-based agency, New Haven Legal Assistance Association, announced that its Board of Directors has chosen Alexis H. Smith of Hamden as its next executive director. She replaces Susan Garcia-Nofi, who departure was announced in late October. She has been serving as the interim chief.

Following is the text of a release the agency sent out:

The Board of Directors of New Haven Legal Assistance Association has chosen Alexis H. Smith of Hamden as its next Executive Director. 
Smith, a graduate of Duke University and the University of Wisconsin Law School, has served as deputy director since 2012 and was a staff attorney at Greater Hartford Legal Aid from 2006 – 2012. She is a native of New Haven.
The new executive director has served as an officer of the Connecticut Bar Association and president of the George W. Crawford Black Bar Association. She was featured in Connecticut Magazine’s ​“40 Under 40” in 2015. In 2012, she was honored by the Connecticut Law Tribune as a ​“New Leader in the Law.” She has served on the boards of the New Alliance Foundation, St. Thomas’s Day School, the Connecticut Center for Arts and Technology, and Community Partners in Action and is a certified soccer referee. Smith lives in Hamden, with her husband Ken and their three children.
Board president Beverly J. Hodgson said, ​“the board is delighted to have a leader with such deep connection to our mission of providing legal services to the poor and advancing justice and equal rights under the law.”
New Haven Legal Assistance Association has a fifty-one year history as a nonprofit law firm serving clients in the greater New Haven area.