LSA recently welcomed Birmingham native Kintisha Matthews, Staff Attorney, to its Montgomery Office. Matthews, who will be based out of the One Place Family Justice Center, began with the firm on Aug. 5. 

With a background in hospitality and customer service, Matthews stated she has always been “an advocate” since childhood. Her strong desire to be a voice to the voiceless and help others who were less fortunate, later developed into an interest in law and public policy.

“I have an interest in politics – the administrative side. I thought, ‘now is my chance to learn the policy side of it,’” Matthews said, who earned her master’s in Public Policy after law school. “In law school, I initially wanted to do some federal and criminal work or consumer law. I worked for a domestic relations judge for five years and fell in love with it.”

Matthews, who earned a J.D. from the Western Michigan University Thomas M. Cooley Law School in Lansing, MI in 2011, saw first-hand the need for decent legal representation.

“I saw so many people who couldn’t afford adequate representation,” Matthews said. “There was a stigma that court appointed attorneys who were doing pro bono cases wouldn’t be able to provide the best of services. Many people were in debt because they felt they had to hire an attorney to get adequate representation, and that simply isn’t true. There are people who will advocate for you just as hard.”

While at LSA, Matthews hopes to “bridge the pathway to justice” by applying her legal knowledge to her cases, especially related to domestic violence clients.

 “I want to help create a more equitable pathway to justice to those who are in underserved communities – the indigent,” Matthews said. “I have the knowledge and can provide the service. I want to help as many people as I can.”

Matthews also earned a bachelor’s in Mass Communications from Paine College in Augusta, GA (2008) and a master’s in Public Policy from Liberty University (2018).  Her community memberships include: Secretary of the NAACP Metro Birmingham Branch; Board Member of the YMCA of Greater Birmingham – Youth Center; Junior League of Birmingham; and member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.  With two younger sisters, and a 4-year-old niece and 1-year-old nephew, Matthews enjoys spending time with her family and shopping whenever she can.

For more information about Matthews and our advocates, please visit: www.legalservicesalabama.org.