The Legal Aid Society is pleased to announce that Munonyedi Clifford will serve as Attorney-in-Charge of the Citywide Housing Justice Practice.

Currently, Munonyedi, also known as Mun, serves as Director of the Housing Justice Unit at the Harlem Community Law Office where she supervises all facets of housing work, and builds relationships with external stakeholders and court staff.

Mun emigrated to the U.S. from Nigeria with her family and 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. Her decision to attend law school was galvanized by the foreclosure of her family home.

“Part of the reason I got into this work in the first place is wanting to advocate for people like my mom,” Clifford told the New York Law Journal.

Mun started out as a staff attorney at The Harlem Community Law Office in 2011.  Since then, she gained vast experience in civil and housing litigation in state and federal courts.  After the passage of the Right to Counsel Law in 2017, she led the Expanded Legal Services Project (ELS) for Manhattan. She also served as a Deputy Director of the Right to Counsel Program at Queens Legal Services.  Throughout all her roles, Mun has witnessed the effects of greed, gentrification, and predatory practices on low-income communities of color which has served to strengthen her commitment to the fight for racial and housing justice.

Mun’s ability to lead attorneys with dynamic case strategies and ongoing support is widely recognized.  She ensures that effective communication and transparency is apparent in all her interactions with peers and clients.

“I am so proud to lead this wonderful team of housing practitioners who are in the trenches fighting every day to ensure that our clients get a meaningful right to counsel in housing court,” said Mun. “The fight for housing and racial justice has never been more important, and I look forward to building on Legal Aid’s efforts to secure our clients, low-income tenants from communities of color, the outcomes that they deserve.”