Lisa Herman

I started my law career in mental health law working for the state of New York, representing the patients in the hospitals. I did that for 23 years and spent a lot of time on locked inpatient psychiatric units. Four years ago, I basically retired from the state and took a position with this law firm that has this mental health law practice, which is very unique. What inspired me to get into the field was a professor, the first professor I met at law school. His name is Michael Perlin, he has since retired, but this is his area that he was extremely passionate about, and I just fell in love with it on the first day of law school. The biggest challenge in my field is that the mental health system is really not a great one and is quite deficient. So trying to help families when they're in crisis, when the resources are limited, is quite difficult.