Munonyedi “Mun” Clifford, Director of Housing at The Legal Aid Society’s Harlem Community Law Office, has been awarded the Social Justice Scholars Alumni Award from her alma mater, Vermont Law School. The award is given annually to a graduate who has demonstrated a deep and abiding commitment to causes of social justice.

Mun began her road to the law when she emigrated to the U.S. from Nigeria with her family. She spent her early teenage years in New York City, residing first in a modest apartment in Brooklyn where she observed the harmful effects of gentrification firsthand. She is proud to say she has lived or worked in every borough of the city.

Her decision to attend law school was galvanized by the foreclosure of her family home. Watching her mother and other similarly situated women of color navigate the legal system without an advocate buoyed her to dedicate her legal career to fighting for racial and social justice. She is also an adjunct professor at NYU Law School where she will be teaching a Housing Rights Clinic starting in the fall of 2022.

When not fighting for housing justice in the various NYC housing courts, you can find her delighting in anything that her toddler is doing.

Congratulations to Mun, who will be recognized at a ceremony to on Saturday, June 25 along with her fellow honorees Margaret A. Mangan JD, Thomas F. Leary JD/MSEL, and Shirley A. Jefferson JD.