Since 2004, C. Kenneth Perri has served as the executive director of Legal Assistance of Western New York, Inc., a not-for-profit corporation established to provide access to the justice system to low-income people and other vulnerable populations who have civil legal problems. LawNY provides civil legal services throughout a large 14 county service area in western New York with staffed offices in Bath, Elmira, Geneva, Ithaca, Jamestown, Olean and Rochester. Mr. Perri's present responsibilities include managing the $12 million organization; resource development; working with funders, community groups, other civil legal service providers and the private bar;
and supervising the management staff of deputy directors, managing attorneys and the chief fiscal officer. Presently, with a staff of approximately 145, including approximately 75 attorneys, LawNY provides services to the residents of Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Chemung, Livingston, Monroe, Ontario, Schuyler, Seneca, Steuben, Tioga, Tompkins, Wayne and Yates Counties. In 2017, Lawny closed 8,880 cases benefiting 18,906 people, including 29% in the area of government benefits, 23% in housing, 18% in family law, 15% in health law, 5% in employment law, 4% in consumer law and 6% other.

Mr. Perri is a 1978 graduate of the State University of New York at Stony Brook (B.A.,
Psychology) and a 1981 graduate of Boston University School of Law. He has worked with civil legal services programs his entire professional career. He began as a legal intern with Greater Boston Legal Services from 1980 - 1981. From 1982 - 1986, he worked as a staff attorney and then as a senior staff attorney with the Dothan Regional Office of the Legal Services Corporation of Alabama. In 1986, he became the managing attorney of Legal Assistance of the Finger Lakes in Geneva, New York. In 2002, he became the executive director of the program, overseeing the operations of the Geneva office and the larger urban office, Monroe County Legal Assistance
Corporation, in Rochester, New York. In 2004, the program expanded from a six county to a 14 county service area and was renamed LawNY®.

Mr. Perri is a member of the American Bar Association, the New York State Bar Association, the Monroe County Bar Association and the Ontario County Bar Association. Within NYSBA, he presently serves on the Committee on Legal Aid and the President's Committee on Access to Justice. Within PCAJ, he chairs a subcommittee which seeks to increase pro bono by attorneys employed by government agencies and serves on the cy pres subcommittee. He chaired the
Committee on Legal Aid from 6/1/07 "“ 5/31/11. He is an active member of NYSBA's New York Pro Bono Coordinators' Network. He presently serves on the Statewide Law School Access to Justice Council and he served on the Independent Judicial Election Qualification Commission for the Seventh Judicial District from 6/2012 to 12/2018. He began serving on the Permanent Commission on Access to Justice's Justice for All pilot project in Monroe County as a member of the leadership team in 3/2018 and he presently serves as the co-chair of the Town and Village Courts work group for that initiative.