Lisa Y. Schatz-Vance

An advocate for the health, safety, and dignity of all, Lisa has dedicated her career to helping the poor, people with disabilities, and the incarcerated. She began as a staff attorney with Disability Rights New Mexico in 1998. Over the past twenty-three years, she has worked as an attorney, an executive director of a non-profit organization to older New Mexicans, as the first ever development director for the largest legal services agency in New Mexico, as well as deputy general counsel at the Second Judicial District Court where she also served as the Title II ADA coordinator.

Throughout her career, Lisa has worked on a broad array of issues affecting children and adults with mental disabilities, including litigation regarding behavioral health managed care, youth aging out of the foster care system, the constitutional rights of institutionalized persons, and the criminalization of individuals with mental illness. She served as co-counsel in McClendon v. City of Albuquerque et al., Foley v. Department of Health, et al., and Bravo v. Dona Ana County et al.

A 2001 recipient of a National Association for Public Interest Law (NAPIL) Equal Justice Fellowship, Lisa worked with the Judge David L. Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law in Washington, D.C. addressing the criminalization of persons with mental illness. She was also recognized by the Albuquerque Human Rights Board for her outstanding advocacy on behalf of individuals with disabilities.

A former Adjunct Professor at New York Law School, she taught Survey of Mental Disability Law and Mental Health Issues in Jails and Prison. She is also a graduate of New York Law School.

In her role as an attorney with the Law Office of Matthew Vance, P.C., she represents individuals in jails and prisons who have endured deprivations in their constitutional rights to medical and mental health care, due process, and access to the courts.