Eileen Travis and Meredith Heller

Eileen Travis was the founding Director of the New York City Bar Association's Lawyer Assistance Program, which she led from its creation in 1999 until her retirement in 2026. Under her leadership the program became a national model, providing free and confidential assessment, intervention, counseling, monitoring, and peer support to thousands of lawyers, judges, law students, and their families, and working closely with the Character and Fitness and Grievance Committees of the Appellate Divisions. Before joining the City Bar she directed the outpatient chemical dependency program at New York Hospital Medical Center of Queens and served as Director of Outreach Family Services. She received the New York State Bar Association's Ray of Hope Award for her work on lawyer wellness.

Meredith Heller is the Director of the New York City Bar Association's Lawyer Assistance Program, appointed in February 2026 to succeed Eileen Travis. A criminal defense attorney with extensive experience in state and federal litigation, she has won reversals of convictions in the New York Court of Appeals and the Second Circuit, and has represented attorneys in disciplinary proceedings and bar applicants before the character and fitness committees. She previously chaired the City Bar's Lawyer Assistance Program Committee and served on its Professional Ethics Committee, and she speaks regularly at First Department orientation programs and law schools about substance use in the profession and the resources available to lawyers.