Nurture our Future
To honor Betty’s legacy and further the mission of the Harriett Buhai Center for Family Law, we proudly announce the establishment of the Betty Nordwind Legacy Fund.
This fund is designed to strengthen the Buhai Center’s ongoing work addressing domestic violence. It will also nurture new and innovative initiatives that will expand the Buhai Center’s outreach capacity and increase its legal services to a greater number of community members.
a legacy of compassionate advocacy
Over the last 36 years, Betty Nordwind has rooted the Harriett Buhai Center in compassionate advocacy, building a legacy of advancing equal justice by providing free family law legal services to those in need in Los Angeles. As Betty hands the torch of leadership to Stacy Horth-Neubert, the Buhai Center remains committed to continued growth and enhancing its ability to serve low-income victims of domestic violence and individuals needing other critical family law assistance.
Plant a seed
Your special donation in 2024 will help the Buhai Center launch an important emergency domestic violence restraining order initiative and broaden its programs. Together, we can empower more survivors of domestic violence, protect more vulnerable children, and create a Los Angeles where more families live safely and with dignity.
This is an opportunity to support the long term growth of the Buhai Center in addition to meeting its annual needs.
The Betty Nordwind Legacy Fund will promote innovative, new, and expanded ways for the Buhai Center to serve more people and help design solutions to emerging community problems.
The first project your special contribution to the Legacy Fund will support is the
Emergency Domestic Violence Restraining Order Initiative
This project will respond to the most urgent domestic violence matters for people seeking legal help.
Your contribution will enable:
More low-income clients served
Earlier intervention in family court
Strengthened continuity of care
Help prevent homelessness
More pro bono opportunities
This initiative aims to increase the Buhai Center’s capacity to provide urgently needed restraining and family court orders to victims of domestic violence and their children, and increase pro bono participation in Buhai Center work. The initiative will increase the number of individuals the Buhai Center and its volunteers can assist in receiving life-saving legal protections.
Plant a Seed for the Buhai Center’s Future
Make a special contribution to the Betty Nordwind Legacy Fund
Other ways to donate or make a pledge:
LEGACy fund giving levels
$50,000
Legacy Leader
$25,000
Empowerment Pioneer
$10,000
Innovation Incubator
$5,000
Community Defender
$2,500
Foundation Builder
$1,000
Justice Ambassador
$500
Advocacy Ally
ABout Betty and Stacy
Betty Nordwind
Betty’s crusade for the rights of low-income and disenfranchised individuals precedes her accomplished legal career and began when she was just a teen. She has devoted her legal career to social justice issues and has been on the forefront of efforts championing the rights of the low-income individuals, disabled persons, and women. Graduating from the University of Colorado Law School in 1971, Betty immediately signed up for a service corps program at Metro Denver Legal Aid, handling everyday problems of indigent residents of Colorado. In the vanguard of the disability rights movement, Betty founded and lead Denver Legal Aid’s first mental health law unit providing legal representation to civilly committed indigent individuals. Betty also helped initiate a path-breaking lawsuit on behalf of low-income individuals with chronic mental health issues. Hired to manage the Harriett Buhai Center of Family Law in 1987 as its Executive Director, Betty oversaw its growth from a fledging office of four people and less than 35 volunteers to a strong community institution. Under Betty’s tutelage, the Buhai Center trained hundreds of lawyers and law students, filed several significant lawsuits, engaged in other advocacy directed to eliminating barriers to the courts, and undertook legislative efforts to change child support laws and practices in California and Los Angeles. Under Betty’s direction, the Buhai Center opened doors to the promise of family law and donated volunteer assistance to low-income community college students and incarcerated mothers.
Stacy Horth-Neubert
Stacy Horth-Neubert joined the Harriett Buhai Center for Family Law as its Executive Director in December 2023. Stacy graduated Phi Beta Kappa graduate from the University of Florida with a B.S. in Telecommunication-News, and from Fordham University School of Law, cum laude and Order of the Coif. Stacy began her legal career as a litigation associate at Proskauer Rose LLP, where she first fell in love with pro bono legal service. But it was her move to Los Angeles with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP that heralded the beginning of a profound legacy in pro bono work and equal justice advocacy. During her tenure at Skadden, Stacy not only maintained a high-paced commercial litigation practice, but also spearheaded the growth of the firm’s award-winning impact litigation program as a Pro Bono Coordinator for the Los Angeles office. She joined Sidley Austin LLP later in her career, where Stacy continued to blaze trails, as a litigator, pro bono leader, and champion for women in law. Stacy serves on the board and is a Past-President of WLALA and the WLALA Foundation, past Chair of the Board of Trustees of the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, and is currently a member of each of the ACLU SoCal Foundation and Union boards. For her legal skill and leadership, Stacy has been named one of the Top Women Lawyers in California by the Los Angeles Daily Journal, and one of the Most Influential Women Attorneys by the LA Business Journal. For her pro bono work, Stacy has received the prestigious California Lawyer of the Year Award (CLAY) for extraordinary contributions to the law, and both the ACLU of Southern California Pro Bono Advocacy Award and its Freedom of Information Award.
