Pro Bono Volunteer of the Month – February 2017

Elizabeth Brickfield of Dickinson Wright, PLLC

Elizabeth Brickfield is an attorney with Dickinson Wright, PLLC. She received her undergraduate degree from Manhattanville College and her law degree from Brooklyn Law School. She received her LLM in Taxation from New York University School of Law in 1997. Shortly after, Elizabeth relocated to Nevada and has been practicing law here for over 20 years. She primarily practices in the areas of tax law, estate planning, trusts and estates, guardianship and probate. Elizabeth’s achievements in New York include: Women’s Advisory Committee Award as New York City’s “Outstanding Woman Achiever”; and the “Woman of Distinction” Award from the New York City Department of Finance.

Elizabeth began volunteering with Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada over 10 years ago. Throughout that time, she has accepted 18 pro bono cases in a range of areas, including guardianship, adoption, termination of parental rights, wills and estates, divorce, custody, child abuse and neglect and probate. Elizabeth also participates in our Probate Ask-A-Lawyer Program and is currently mentoring volunteer attorneys with their probate pro bono cases.

When asked about a memorable pro bono client, Elizabeth recalled her representation of African refugees who needed guardianship of their granddaughter. The clients had raised their granddaughter from birth. With Elizabeth’s representation, the grandparents obtained guardianship and that child’s name was changed on her birth certificate to reflect her given name and her father’s last name. Elizabeth said,” No one should go through life with a birth certificate listing your name as Baby Girl with the last name of the mother who abandoned you at birth.” With Elizabeth’s help the child was given a full name and the grandparents were able to enroll the child in school.

For her commitment to representing low-income clients and for the time she has dedicated to Ask-A-Lawyer programs, we honor Elizabeth Brickfield as the February Pro Bono Attorney of the Month.