“[The Lawyers Clearinghouse board] is filled with people who care a lot and have great ideas . . . it’s a mixture of different experiences and interests.” – Melanie Todman, Lawyers Clearinghouse Board Treasurer
Melanie Todman had already built a career that spanned corporate and health law by the time she joined the Lawyers Clearinghouse Board, but she was always drawn to public interest work.
Melanie spent much of her childhood abroad in Europe before attending Carleton College where she alternated between different majors before settling on political science. While she considered statistics and psychology, a constitutional law course she took inspired her to pursue a legal career.
After graduation, she spent two years working in statistics at the National Opinion Research Center, where she worked on research projects analyzing datasets, including a longitudinal study funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
At this point, Melanie’s sights were already set on a career in law. She attended New York University School of Law, which helped shape her passion for public interest and eventually led her to a position as a legal fellow for the Human Rights Organization.
After moving to Boston with her family, Melanie joined a law firm where she worked in litigation and government investigations. While she enjoyed the position, it brought her away from opportunities to engage in the public service work that had motivated her to pursue law.
Melanie soon found her way back to helping others through volunteering. In 2014, she started taking pro bono cases through Lawyers Clearinghouse, which regularly shares lists of available cases with its partner law firms.
“It was just easy to get involved and do good work for people,” she said.
Years later, Melanie joined the Lawyers Clearinghouse board and, in 2024, became treasurer. Since then, she has started working at Mass General Brigham, where she serves as Senior Legal Counsel specializing in international transactional law. In 2025, she also joined the Massachusetts Access to Justice Commission as a commissioner.
As Lawyers Clearinghouse Board Treasurer, Melanie reviews budgets, advises leadership on financial decisions, and ensures the organization’s resources are managed efficiently, helping guide the Clearinghouse internally and supporting the kind of life-changing legal work that drew her to the organization in the first place.
