Deborah Harris joined MLRI as Staff Attorney in the Benefits Unit in 1990. She specializes in public benefits and child support issues. From 1976 to 1990 she was a staff attorney at Community Legal Services in Philadelphia. She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Her work at MLRI has encompassed numerous challenges to federal, state and local rules denying benefits, services, and jobs to low-income people, and advocacy to persuade state agencies to adopt policies and practices that further the state’s goals of protecting vulnerable populations and promoting economic stability. Deborah was lead counsel in MLRI’s lawsuit that stopped the state from using stale and erroneous wage records to terminate SNAP benefits and ordered the state to pay $9.4 million in SNAP to 17,000 households who were illegally terminated. She also provides technical assistance to legislators and advocates on federal and state laws and regulations regarding welfare and other benefits for low-income persons. In addition to many analyses and articles on welfare and child support issues, she is the author, together with other MLRI and legal services advocates, of the TAFDC Advocacy Guide.