The Hiscock Legal Aid Society, a non-profit organization that has been providing legal services to low-income residents of Onondaga County for over sixty-one years, announces the appointment of ten new staff members.

Joining the Hiscock Legal Aid Appeals Program as a Senior Attorney is Christine M. Cook, a former public defender in East Orange, New Jersey, and a former Executive Director of the Legal Aid Society of Wayne County, NY.  She has been in private practice for the past 20 years.  Ms. Cook is a graduate of the Rutgers University School of Law.

There are also two new Staff Attorneys in the Appeals Program.  Piotr Banasiak, a Seton Hall University Law School graduate, was a community law and policy fellow at the Center for Community Change in Newark, NJ.  Kristen McDermott holds a J.D. from the Benjamin Cardozo School of Law and participated in the Innocence Project there.  

Joining the Hiscock Legal Aid Family Court Program as Staff Attorneys are:  Jody L. Agostinelli, a CUNY School of Law graduate who was an Associate Attorney at two law offices in New York City and Veda M. Collmer who also received her J.D. degree from CUNY School of Law, interned for a non-profit public health organization and volunteered with the Onondaga County Bar Association’s Volunteer Lawyers Project.

Patricia L. Stuart has joined the Civil Program as a Staff Attorney. She received her J.D. from the Syracuse University College of Law, was in private practice and volunteered with the Pro Bono Action Now Program before joining Hiscock Legal Aid.

Kristy L. Shenandoah, a LeMoyne College graduate and a former intern at Hiscock Legal Aid has been named a Program Coordinator and Catherine Sage, a graduate of SUNY College at Oneonta with an additional degree in paralegal studies is now an Assistant Program Coordinator with the Family Court Program. Michelle L. Riordan, a LeMoyne College graduate with paralegal training, has joined the Civil Program as a Program Coordinator.

Nikia L. Trice is now a Receptionist-Secretary at the Hiscock Legal Aid Society.  Ms. Trice most recently served as a Traffic Supervisor for Aegis Communications in Port Saint Lucie, Florida.