Harlene Katzman

Harlene Katzman is the Chief Pro Bono Counsel at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP. In this role, Harlene oversees the Pro Bono Program and Practice in the Firm’s offices. 

Harlene’s pro bono clients include primarily low-income, immigrant women who have been victims of domestic violence and trafficking. In 2021, 2020 and 2010, Sanctuary for Families honored Harlene at its annual “Above & Beyond Awards” for Excellence in Pro Bono Representation and Advocacy. In 2021, Volunteers of Legal Service honored Harlene at the “New York, Together” awards ceremony for exhibiting pro bono leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond and featured her on a panel discussing the Firm’s pro bono work with DACA recipients. In 2016, the New York Law Journal honored Harlene as one of its “Lawyers Who Lead By Example” and she was profiled in its September 20th issue. In 2016, Harlene also received the Pro Bono Counsel Award from Her Justice as part of its 2016 Commitment to Justice Awards for pro bono work done on behalf of low income women and children. In 2012, Harlene received the Abely Pro Bono Achievement Award from Sanctuary for Families for her work representing victims of gender-based violence. Harlene is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the Law Firm Antiracism Alliance, a former Vice President of the Board of Directors of the Reproductive Health Access Project, and a Past President of the Association of Pro Bono Counsel. She sits on the Legal Advisory Council for Sanctuary for Families and the Public Service Committee of the Federal Bar Council. Harlene has also served as the Chair of the American Association of Law Schools’ Section on Pro Bono and Public Service Opportunities and was a long-time member of the New York City Bar Association’s Pro Bono and Legal Services Committee.

Prior to joining the Firm in 2008, Harlene was the Dean of the Center for Public Interest Law at Columbia Law School where she directed the school's mandatory Pro Bono Program as well as its public interest programming, counseling and fellowships programs. From 1997–2000, Harlene was a plaintiffs' civil rights lawyer with a small plaintiffs law firm where she litigated employment and housing discrimination cases in federal and state court. After graduating from CUNY Law School in 1995, she spent two years as a Law Clerk in the Staff Attorney’s Office for the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Harlene has a B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley.