Ilana Avital

Ilana Avital is a senior staff attorney in the Public Benefits Unit. She represents clients in a wide range of public benefits matters, including Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Medicaid, Medicare, and unemployment insurance.

Ilana has been practicing disability law for much of her career in civil legal services. Most recently, Ilana was a staff attorney at Legal Services of New Jersey and the Legal Aid Society of New York City (NYC), where she represented clients in SSI and SSDI claims at Administrative Law Judge hearings, before the Appeals Council and in federal court. She also represented individual tenants in nonpayment and holdover proceedings in Brooklyn Housing Court while at Legal Aid Society of NYC. Prior to working in New York and New Jersey, Ilana was a staff attorney at Legal Action of Wisconsin where she primarily represented individuals experiencing homelessness in SSI and SSDI claims.

Ilana received her J.D. from Northwestern University School of Law in 2007. While at Northwestern, she was a student attorney at the Center on Wrongful Convictions and interned with Judge Lynn Adelman of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin. She received her B.A. from Wellesley College. While at Wellesley, she interned with the ACLU of Wisconsin and the office of U.S. Senator Russ Feingold in Washington, D.C.