Trip to Former Concentration Camp Inspires Burns Award Winner To ‘Make It Count’
3.16.2026
The New York State Bar Association is honoring civil legal services champion Rachel Chazin Halperin with its W. Haywood Burns Award for decades of service to Hudson Valley residents.
Named for the civil rights attorney who worked with Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King and rose to prominence as New York’s first African American law school dean, the Burns award recognizes leaders in social justice and civil rights law in New York State.
The award will be presented at the CUNY School of Law on April 15 from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Journalists are invited to attend and are asked to notify Jennifer Andrus at jandrus@nysba.org.
Halperin leads the Legal Services of Hudson Valley where she supervises more than 200 attorneys and staff in ten offices across seven counties.
“Rachel Halperin has dedicated her career to serving our neighbors, helping them maintain their basic needs of housing, food and health care,” said New York State Bar Association President Kathleen Sweet.
Halperin credits her passion for service to her family and the epiphany she experienced traveling to Poland as a teenager. While visiting former concentration camps, she was inspired to make her life count by helping vulnerable people.
“I remember seeing pictures of teenagers who looked a lot like I did and realizing that if I had simply been born at a different time, that that would very likely have been me and my family,” she recounted. “All of those lives were cut short. It really stuck with me and made me feel like I had an obligation to do something significant with my life and make a small difference in the world.”
Halperin did just that with dual professional degrees in law and social work and has spent the last 25 years in public service combatting housing and food insecurity, domestic violence, sexual assault and poverty. Halperin credits her staff and colleagues for this award, saying civil legal services work is a team sport.
“This award is a tribute to everyone who I’ve worked with over the past 25 years, and to all of my clients who have taught me about courage and resilience in the face of significant adversity,” she said.
Halperin received her Juris Doctor from New York University School of Law and her Master of Social Work from New York University School of Social Work. She received her Bachelor of Arts in sociology from the University of Pennsylvania. She is a member of the New York State Permanent Commission on Access to Justice and the New York State Bar Association’s Committee on Legal Aid, and the co-chair of the Westchester County Bar Association’s Committee on Attorney Wellness.