CVLC Staff

ADVISORY BOARD BOARD STAFF

Ashleigh Backman

Pro Bono Manager & Intake Attorney

Ashleigh Backman is CVLC’s Pro Bono Manager and Intake Attorney. Prior to joining CVLC, she worked as a legal aid attorney and Pro Bono Attorney Manager for Statewide Legal Services of Connecticut, Inc., where she managed four pro bono programs, private bar engagement, and community-based outreach and advocacy. As a legal aid attorney, Ashleigh represented low-income individuals seeking pardon assistance in order to overcome barriers relating to affordable housing and employment. Ashleigh is a Connecticut Bar Foundation James W. Cooper Fellow. Ashleigh graduated from Bryn Mawr College and the University of New Hampshire School of Law, where she was a Doris Monroe Rappe Scholar and a Franklin Pierce Public Interest Scholar. She is admitted to practice in Connecticut.

Liam Brennan

Executive Director

Liam comes to CVLC from New Haven Legal Assistance Association, where he worked in the Community and Economic Development Unit. Prior to joining New Haven Legal Assistance, Liam worked for the U.S. Department of Justice where he served as a trial attorney in the Criminal Division's Fraud Section, an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Financial Fraud and Public Corruption unit in Connecticut, and the director of the Federal Public Corruption Task Force in Connecticut. Liam has also been a visiting lecturer at Yale Law School and serves on the Board of Junta for Progressive Action.

Chelsea Donaldson

Singer Fellow, Staff Attorney

Sharon Fialkovich

Howard R. Udell Staff Attorney

style="display: none;">Sharon Fialkovich is CVLC’s Howard R. Udell Fellow in Veterans Justice representing veterans in the Hartford area. Prior to joining CVLC, she worked as an Agency Attorney for the City of New York Department of Social Services. Before her time at DSS, she worked as a Staff Attorney at Womankind (former New York Asian Women’s Center), where she headed the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Project and assisted trafficking and domestic violence victims seeking immigration remedies. Sharon received her J.D. from the City University of New York School of Law and her B.A. from the State University of New York Binghamton. She is admitted to practice law in Connecticut and New York.