Public Employee Press: PEP Talk
Snapshots
Head of Legal Services retires
Family, friends, coworkers, and judges gathered to bid farewell to Joan Beranbaum, who retired as director and chief counsel of the DC 37 Municipal Employees Legal Services Plan. Beranbaum was among the first group of employees to join the legal services program when it opened in 1977.
At her retirement party, Beranbaum noted that during the course of her nearly four-decade career at DC 37, MELS handled the cases of half a million DC 37 members and retirees. Speakers praised Beranbaum for devoting her career to working people. She remained passionate about her work and never lost her sense of mission throughout her career.
Beranbaum became supervising attorney of the new housing unit in 1983 during a restructuring in which the plan established units devoted to specific areas such as bankruptcy, family matters, consumer rights, government entitlements, finance, preparation of wills, immigration, and name changes. In 2002, she was appointed to head the legal service.
