Attorneys: Attorney Profiles

Stephen C. Halpern
Attorney
e-mail: shalpern@cldplaw.com  

The most important thing to know about me is that I grew up in the Bronx, the son of working class Jewish immigrants and that I came of age in the 1960s. Those origins imprinted in me a fierce commitment to underdogs, to have-nots, to people with little power who are struggling.

My parents, who had little more than a grade school education themselves, revered education. I got the message, devoting more time to formal education than any sane person should, earning a bachelor’s degree from the City College of New York, (it was a free higher education), a Master’s degree and Ph.D. in Political Science (majoring in constitutional law) from Johns Hopkins, and a law degree from SUNY Buffalo. I am a professor at SUNY Buffalo, and the author or editor of five books on the American legal system, largely focusing on civil rights and liberties.

I consider myself to be a “public interest” lawyer, spending a substantial part of my time representing people who otherwise would have no lawyer. In recent years that has meant working to preserve and landmark a beautiful 19th century Roman Catholic church in Buffalo’s inner city and turning it into a community center, representing victims of housing discrimination, assisting workers exposed to toxic nuclear wastes, protecting the rights of low wage workers and suing municipalities for their negligence or failure to enforce their own laws. I feel lucky and privileged to be supported in that work by this firm.

At the firm, much of my work involves writing, especially legal briefs in appeals where we have won and the other side appeals, or vice versa. That work is intellectually challenging and focuses my energies on something I love to do--protecting people by using my skills as a writer.

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