Supervising Attorney
Louise Hayes (she/her) has been an attorney at CLS’s North Philadelphia Law Center since 1997, when she joined CLS as an Independence Foundation Fellow. While helping CLS clients get and keep a range of public benefits, her expertise is in SNAP and cash assistance programs, including programs to help clients move toward self-sufficiency. Since 2015, she has been Pennsylvania Project Director for the Advancing Strategies to Align Programs (ASAP) project, leading a team of six organizations using administrative advocacy to boost participation rates in SNAP and Medicaid. She has spoken at national, state and local conferences on SNAP, welfare rights, and advocacy strategies.
Ms. Hayes graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, where she was an editor of the Harvard Law Review. She also received her Master of Public Administration from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University and her A.B. from Cornell University. She clerked for the Hon. Louis H. Pollak of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania from 1996.1997.
Awards and Honors
Ms. Hayes received the 2010 Excellence Award, presented by the Pennsylvania Legal Aid Network. She was also the editor and author of the 11th edition of the Food Research & Action Center’s Guide to the Food Stamp Program, as well as other papers on food stamp issues for FRAC. In 2010, the Independence Foundation awarded Ms. Hayes with a Senior Attorney Sabbatical Fellowship.
PLAN Excellence Award 2010
Pennsylvania Rising Stars 2006
Pennsylvania Rising Stars 2005