Nina Loewenstein

Nina Loewenstein worked nearly twenty years as an attorney at Disability Rights New York (DRNY), New York’s protection and advocacy (P&A) system for people with disabilities. Most recently, she was a supervising attorney in DRNY’s Protection & Advocacy for Individuals with Mental Illness (PAIMI). Nina now works with the Disability Law Center (the Massachusetts P&A) on monitoring, investigations and systemic advocacy in the PAIMI and PAIR (Protection and Advocacy for Individual Rights) programs.

While at DRNY, Nina led statewide litigation for the New York P&A challenging the solitary confinement of prisoners with serious mental illness and the inadequacy of mental health treatment in New York State's prisons. This litigation led to a statewide settlement whose protections were ultimately enacted into state law. She also worked extensively on community integration litigation and advocacy for individuals with psychiatric disabilities in adult homes and nursing homes. Nina is a vice-chair of the New York State Bar Association’s Elder Law & Special Needs Section’s Committee on Long Term Care Facility Reform, and a member of its Committee on Mental Health Law. She graduated from Wesleyan University and New York University School of Law, and holds a Master’s in Public Health from Boston University.