Charles M. Delbaum is an Access to Justice Fellow volunteering to assist HLA with impact litigation. He has been a public interest litigator for the past 50 years. Most recently, he worked as a class action litigator at the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) from 2005 to 2022. In 2022, he largely, but not completely, retired, and still works on several class actions for NCLC. He has successfully pursued dozens of class actions to remedy abusive conduct by student loan lenders, mortgage servicers, payday lenders, debt collectors, and credit reporting agencies.

He began his career as a law clerk for a federal district court judge and then was a staff attorney in the law reform unit of the Cleveland (Ohio) Legal Aid Society from 1975 to 1979. There, he pursued class actions for individuals with low income, including several cases on behalf of nursing home patients. Later, as Director of Litigation at New Orleans Legal Assistance from 1992-2005, he successfully pursued actions on behalf of Medicaid applicants whose applications were not being timely processed, public housing tenants whose children were being poisoned by lead paint, and others.

He is a graduate of Amherst College and Harvard Law School.