About me
Haley Kulakowski is a Public Benefits Supervising Staff Attorney at Empire Justice Center's Rochester office. Haley practices in public benefits law, focusing on impact litigation through class action lawsuits to improve public benefits programs and ensure equitable access to benefits for all New Yorkers. She co-authored a report "No Keys to Safe and Decent Housing in New York’s 'Safety Net'," calling for an increase to the inadequate shelter allowance. Haley is also a key collaborator on FairHearingHelpNY, a website for pro se public benefits appellants to learn about their due process rights. She has provided various legal trainings on this resource, and other public benefits topics like "How Public Benefits May Help Victims of Domestic Violence and Other Crimes," "Public Benefits for Housing Attorneys" and "Telephonic Fair Hearings." Haley earned her undergraduate degree from Syracuse University and her juris doctorate degree from Harvard Law School, where she was a student attorney at the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau and co-Editor in Chief of the Harvard Journal on Law and Gender.
Outside of her legal work, Haley also volunteers with the Big Brother, Big Sister program as an older sister to a teenager. She is also a board member for the Public Utility Law Project of New York.
