Ira Burnim is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School, who joined the Bazelon Center's legal staff in 1988 and is now legal director. Formerly, Burnim served as legal director of the Children's Defense Fund and prior to that as a senior attorney of the Southern Poverty Law Center. He has litigated precedent-setting cases on mental health and child welfare system reform, managed health care, and the Americans with Disabilities Act. Burnim is a member of the board of directors of the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland.