Posted August 12, 20249:55 am
Kimberly Barnett-Mills, Esq., previously a Supervising Attorney in the Legal Aid Intake and Volunteers Lawyers Program (Intake/VLP), was recently promoted to the role of Managing Attorney for Community Engagement.
In her new role, Kimberly will carry out innovative ways to engage with community partners to expand Legal Aid’s outreach efforts, cultivate new relationships, and address systemic issues that affect our client community.
Kimberly started her career at Legal Aid as an attorney in what was the Municipal Defense Practice Group. She went on to assert the rights of criminal defendants as an Assistant Public Defender for Cuyahoga County and later sought justice for crime victims as the Chief Prosecutor for the City of Cleveland. She returned to Legal Aid in 2017 as a Senior Attorney in the Family Law Practice Group before moving into the Intake/VLP Supervising Attorney role in 2020.
Kimberly served as a member of both the Family Justice Center Executive Committee and Child Advocacy Center Advisory Committee to advance the need for trauma-focused streamlined services for violence survivors. She was an inaugural commissioner on the Cuyahoga County Human Rights Commission. She has served on various internal working groups at Legal Aid, including Ethics, DEI Workforce, Volunteer Engagement, and Language Equity Committees. Kimberly currently serves on a strategic plan working group and the Summer Associate Hiring Committee at Legal Aid.
Kimberly is a Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association (CMBA) Leadership Academy graduate. She received her JD from Cleveland State University College of Law and her bachelor's degree from Baldwin-Wallace College.
Legal Aid is excited to have Kimberly’s leadership in increasing opportunities for community outreach and connections with local partners to help secure justice, equity, and access to opportunity for and with people who have low incomes.