NH Paralegal Professionalism Award Recipient: Megan Dillon

MANCHESTER, NH - NH Legal Assistance (NHLA) is honored to announce that Megan Dillon, a paralegal in our Manchester office and Co-Director of our Benefits Project, has been selected for the prestigious Paralegal Professionalism Award by the NH Bar Association.

Dillon has been a paralegal at NHLA since 2007. She is currently Co-Director of the Benefits Project, which assists clients who have been wrongly denied access to federal, state, and local public benefits programs ranging from federal Social Security benefits to local welfare. She has also worked extensively over the past 17 years on the Youth Law Project, which primarily helps children with disabilities navigate the special education and school discipline processes.

Her work includes representing individual clients in administrative law proceedings before the NH Department of Health of Human Services, and the Social Security Administration, including having achieved certification in the Social Security Administration’s Eligible for Direct Payment Non-Attorney program.

“Public benefits law is staggeringly complex, undergirded by a gigantic body of highly technical federal, state, and local laws, regulations, and policy pronouncements. Perhaps the central concept is due process; what that due process looks like varies enormously from one procedural setting to another,” says NHLA Executive Director Sarah Mattson Dustin. “Megan’s depth of substantive and procedural knowledge makes her an incredibly nimble advocate, as comfortable in front of a seasoned Social Security Administrative Law Judge as she is on the phone with the part-time welfare director in a small town.”

In recent years, one of Dillon’s major efforts started when she identified significant issues with the State’s administration of a program for adults with disabilities, resulting in a number of people being wrongly denied access to a public medical insurance program.

She guided NHLA’s resulting work in individual cases, including writing much of the brief for a Supreme Court appeal, and in the policy advocacy space. When an opportunity arose during the last legislative session to seek progress on access to public benefits for youth in foster care, Dillon dove in, immediately earning credibility with legislators based on her vast knowledge and crisp presentation style.

“Megan is the rare advocate who both knows how to use a comprehensive range of advocacy tools and has the judgment to make difficult strategy decisions about which tool is most likely to solve the problem at hand,” said Mattson Dustin.

“The work Megan does quite literally alters the trajectory of people’s lives. Her disability benefits clients often arrive at NHLA with no income, no access to health care, and significant barriers to getting the help they need. Through Megan’s robust advocacy, they often leave NHLA with a steady source of income and health insurance through Medicaid. This can stabilize entire families, allowing them to better meet their basic needs such as housing, food, and medication.”

“I love my job because I see daily the difference the work makes, lifesaving sometimes,” Dillon said.  “This year has been a marker for paraprofessionals, primarily because of the support and tenacity of my colleagues at NH Legal Assistance to extend the paraprofessional pilot program. I know firsthand how raising up paraprofessionals as primary advocates is essential to bridging the access to justice gap in our state and communities. I am so appreciative to NH Legal Assistance and the NH Bar for this award because it promotes this key profession and possibility for growth in advocacy roles in the future.

“I am humbled and thankful for this recognition, but I think the part that was the most meaningful to me was getting to read the nomination letters. Gaining the trust and admiration of our clients is amazing, but when your colleagues, the people who trained you, whom you admire, and hold in the highest regard share similar feelings about you - it is a different kind of validation,” Dillon said.

NHLA looks forward to celebrating Megan at the annual meeting of the Paralegal Association of New Hampshire.