Memphis Area Legal Services, Inc.

Harrison D. McIver III
Executive Director/CEO

McIver received his undergraduate degree from Morehouse College in Atlanta, GA and J.D. from Rutgers University School of Law, Newark, NJ and began his legal career as a Reginald Heber Smith Fellow at North Mississippi Rural Legal Services. He later became a managing attorney of the former Southwest Mississippi Legal Services and North Mississippi Rural Legal Services before becoming Executive Director of the Central Mississippi Legal Services in Jackson, MS. After 14 years in Mississippi, he was appointed Executive Director of the Project Advisory Group, the national organization of legal services programs in Washington, DC, where he advocated for PAG’s member organizations, the membership of which included legal aid law firms from across the country. There, he provided technical assistance to them while coordinating and authoring communications, which included the informative PAG Update, for the national legal aid community. In 1998, McIver was hired as Executive Director of MALS and since arriving, McIver facilitated the creation of the program’s first vision and mission statements, and strategic and business plans that rallied and focused board and staff around a common purpose; restructured the delivery system to promote more efficient access to services; and served as a catalyst for building partnerships and collaborations including the private bar in order to expand services, increase and maximize resources . He has been successful at assembling and maintaining a highly dedicated and competent staff to serve the program’s client population. Since arriving in Memphis, McIver has served on various community organization boards and as Chair of the National Legal Aid and Defender Association, member of Tennessee House of Delegates and the Memphis Bar Association and local National Bar Association (Ben F. Jones Chapter) Boards of Directors. He received the local National Bar Association’s A. A. Latting Award, and was inducted as a Fellow in both the Tennessee Bar Foundation and the Memphis and Shelby County Bar Foundation. In 2008, he was selected as a Fellow in the American Bar Foundation. Under McIver’s leadership, MALS became the first legal aid organization participant in the Program for Nonprofit Excellence in the country, a nationally recognized capacity building program designed to enhance organizational capacity in providing seamless high quality service.

Frank S. Cantrell
General Counsel

General Counsel for MALS since 2008, Cantrell supervises the management of program operations to ensure high quality, effective and efficient legal assistance is delivered to MALS clients consistent with the Code of Professional Responsibility, Legal Services Corporation regulations and other funding requirements, program policies and procedures.  He also serves as Managing Attorney of the Consumer Law unit.   He joined MALS in 2004 as an attorney in the Consumer law unit.  Prior to that, he was in private practice in the Memphis area for 25 years.  He is an honors graduate of the University of Memphis (then Memphis State University) and received his Juris Doctor from its School of Law in 1979.  He served as an Adjunct Professor of Legal Method from 1979 to 1992, while engaging in the full-time private practice of law.  He later worked as an Adjunct Instructor teaching Employment Law at Webster University.  From 2001 to 2004, he maintained a full-time private mediation and arbitration practice and prior to that, was partner at Jackson, Shields, Yeiser & Cantrell, where he practiced labor and employment law.  Well-respected in the legal community, Cantrell is active in the Memphis Bar Association, the National Bar Association Ben F. Jones Chapter and the American Inns of Court Leo Bearman, Sr. Chapter.  He is an accomplished author and educator, having presented, taught and written a number of pieces on subjects relating to the law, human resource issues and mediation. 

Janese K. Perry
Chief Finance Officer

Perry received a B. S in Business Administration from the University of Tennessee at Martin and a Masters of Public Administration from the University of Memphis.  She initially worked for MALS as its Business Manager from 1979 to 1982.  Since rejoining MALS’ staff in 2001, she has been instrumental in updating the program’s Financial Manual, Employee Handbook, Salary Administration and Employee Performance Appraisal System.   As head of fiscal operations, she has taken measures to improve the program’s fringe benefit package and leads her department in receiving unqualified fiscal audits each year.

Linda Warren Seely
Director of Private Attorney Involvement

Seely began her legal career as a staff attorney and Pro Bono Coordinator with MALS in 1981, after receiving her B.A. and J.D. from University of Memphis (formerly Memphis State University).  She went into private practice in 1983 and returned to MALS in 1989 where she resumed her work as Manager of Pro Bono and Special Projects.  Seely later relocated to Jackson, TN as Pro Bono Coordinator for West Tennessee Legal Services.  She returned to MALS in 2004 and has garnered tremendous support from the legal and client community alike around a number of innovate pro bono initiatives, resulting in expanded access and legal assistance to MALS’ client population.  The most popular of these initiatives have been the Attorney of the Day Pro Se Advice and Counsel Clinic held weekly in the Shelby County Courthouse and the Saturday Legal Clinics held at various churches throughout MALS’ service area.  Seely also manages the Income Maintenance, Health & Elder Law unit of MALS.  She is a member of the Access to Justice Committee for the Memphis and Tennessee bar associations and is a repeat presenter for the American Bar Association Equal Justice Nuts and Bolts Pre-Conference for Pro Bono Coordinators.  Among the many honors and awards she has received are Women Magazine’s 50 Women Who Make a Difference in Memphis, Tennessee Bar Association Access to Legal Counsel Committee’s President’s Award and the B. Riney Green Cooperative Advocacy Award.