Claudia Wilner

Director of Litigation and Advocacy

Claudia Wilner is the Director of Litigation and Advocacy at the National Center for Law and Economic Justice, where she leads the organization’s innovative work to advance economic, racial and disability justice through impact litigation, policy advocacy, and support for grassroots organizing. In this role, Claudia works on a broad array of issues important to low-income people and communities, including access to benefits, police discrimination, environmental justice, disability rights, workers’ rights, and unlawful civil and criminal debt collection. Claudia also serves as editor of the Federal Practice Manual for Legal Aid Attorneys, a storied federal litigation resource for public interest lawyers that NCLEJ has revived and republished in partnership with the National Consumer Law Center.

Prior to NCLEJ, Claudia was a Senior Staff Attorney at New Economy Project, where she worked with thousands of low-income New Yorkers and community groups to fight discriminatory economic practices. She brought impact litigation against financial institutions, supervised the NYC Financial Justice Hotline (which she launched as an NCLC Brooks Fellow), and co-led a policy and legal team supporting the formation of community land trusts in NYC. Claudia’s proudest achievements from her time at New Economy Project include the legal victory in Sykes v. Mel S. Harris and Associates, which resulted in a $59M settlement fund and vacatur of 195,000 fraudulently obtained default judgments, and passage of New York’s Exempt Income Protection Act, which automatically protects a core amount in every bank account from restraint and seizure by debt collectors. Previously, Claudia served as a Skadden Fellow at the Mental Health Project of the Urban Justice Center and as a law clerk for Judge Stephen Reinhardt of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Claudia graduated from New York University School of Law in 2002, where she was a Root Tilden Kern Scholar. She has received the Legal Services Award from the New York City Bar Association, the Rising Star Award from the Partners Council of the National Consumer Law Center, the National Association of Consumer Advocates’ Consumer Advocate Award, and was a finalist for Public Justice’s Trial Lawyer of the Year award.