For half a century, Helaine Barnett, who chairs the state’s Permanent Commission on Access to Justice, has championed efforts to provide legal representation to low-income New Yorkers.

A 1964 graduate of the New York University School of Law, Barnett joined the Legal Aid Society in 1966 as associate appellate counsel of its Criminal Appeals Bureau. In 1971, she joined Legal Aid’s Civil Appeals Unit and became head of the unit in 1974.