even years ago, we were at a crossroads. We were sitting across the table from one another, somewhere in Brooklyn, considering our next steps. We had a problem in front of us: the criminal court, prison, and jail system, a deeply destructive public apparatus, actively harming the well-being of people around the country at massive scale. And we had a solution we believed in: transforming public defense, giving the 80% of accused people who are so poor as to receive appointed counsel the kind of team that could launch a better tomorrow. We didn’t know what would come next, but we knew in that moment that it was time to take action.
A year later, we launched our pilots in Alameda County, California, and Wilmington, Delaware, and now, through this lookback, we’re celebrating how far we’ve come. This work has aided tens of thousands of families, eliminated several thousand years of incarceration, helped hundreds of new professionals launch their brilliant careers, and created a new approach to changing the criminal legal system—Collaborative Defense, the next iteration of what public defense must be.
Here, we’re sharing the best of those collective efforts. We’re highlighting our partners, telling stories of what this work means on the ground, and introducing you to some of the incredible Client Advocates on the front lines of client-led service. And we’re looking to the future, considering what’s possible in the years to come.
Thank you for joining us on this journey. Whether you’re a supporter, partner, Client Advocate, client, friend, lawmaker, or system stakeholder, your interest in transforming public defense and imagining a world in which race and wealth no longer determine legal outcomes has and will propel our mission forward.
Emily Galvin-Almanza Rebecca Solow Founder and Co-Executive Director
Founder and Co-Executive Director
MISSION/VISION
THE PROBLEM, THE SOLUTION
WHY PUBLIC DEFENSE?
OUR STORY SO FAR
HOW IT STARTED & HOW IT’S GOING
WHERE WE’RE GOING NEXT
PILLARS
CLIENT ADVOCATE PROGRAM
CAPACITY BUILDING
EXTERNAL INFLUENCE
TRAINING
OFFICE PROFILES
THANK YOU/ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
To transform public defense at scale.
Any person in America who stands accused will have access to a fierce client-led legal defense that considers the whole person and assists them from arrest through their return home. Public defenders are the only legal system actors currently positioned to offer this support at scale, and they must play a critical role in transforming the legal system. Equitable access to justice requires shifting the culture, delivery, and resourcing of public defense to better meet client and community needs and ensure that race and wealth no longer determine legal outcomes. PFJ aims to urgently address the harms of the carceral cycle, achieving mass decarceration and increasing economic opportunity, health, and safety for all communities. Our work is a form of abolition in action as we move toward a world that no longer relies on prisons and jails.
AUDACITY
We aim to fundamentally transform the criminal legal system, and we believe it can be done. Dismantling this system and redefining public safety requires us to be undeterred by the magnitude of the task at hand.
COLLABORATION
The harm of the carceral cycle is intersectional and complex—and cannot be rectified with lawyering alone. We create interdisciplinary, collaborative solutions to better protect the futures of our clients and their families.
INNOVATION
There’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all defense. We seek new solutions in response to the needs of both clients and defenders. We adapt our work to the needs of each community, defender, and client we serve.
INTEGRITY
We follow through on our promises and evaluate our work to ensure that we truly create change for the clients and defenders we serve.
RESPECT
We guard the authority of each person we serve to define their own goals and desired outcomes and remain deferential to each person’s lived experience. We provide their defenders with the means to do more than simply fight each case in court while respecting their expertise and the distinct context in which they practice.
THE PROBLEM, THE SOLUTION
In America, someone goes to jail every few minutes. There are about 10 million new jail admissions in this country every year, and by the time Americans are 23, about a third of us will have been arrested at least once, with a disproportionate effect on Black, Brown, and marginalized communities.
Negative impacts from this level of incarceration are a certainty. Being in prison dramatically increases the odds of a family becoming homeless and further leads to a 52% reduction in annual earnings and slower earnings growth over a lifetime, leading to a loss of $500,000 over several decades—and a cumulative annual loss of $370 billion to American families who have experienced incarceration. What’s more, these families are suffering devastating, lasting health impacts: every year of incarceration is so dangerous to health that it can add 10-15 years to a person’s physiognomy and shave two years off their expected life span. These impacts trickle through the generations, as a majority of incarcerated people are also parents. Almost no one stays incarcerated forever, and right now, people who have experienced living in a prison or jail are coming home sicker, poorer, deeper in debt (often caused by the system itself) and less able to thrive—which, of course, puts them at greater risk of recidivism. In other words, every jail day eliminated matters.
Some of the people best-positioned to eliminate those jail days are public defenders. For one thing, they have incredible reach: you may not realize this, but odds are, you know someone represented by a public defender. In this country’s courts, 8 out of 10 people cannot afford a lawyer and rely on our public defense system. Half of Americans have had a loved one ensnared in this system, meaning that one out of every three people has likely had
WHAT IS COLLABORATIVE DEFENSE?
Collaborative Defense is a framework for client-led representation that confronts the underlying causes and prevents many of the most dire consequences of criminal legal involvement.
HAVE VISION
An office has a clear vision for holistic, collaborative representation that is communicated internally and externally.
ASK THE RIGHT QUESTIONS
An office has an intake process that screens for client needs and conveys that information to the appropriate staff.
EMPOWER THE CLIENT
Clients are treated professionally and with respect, and their representation works in service of their expressed goals and priorities.
CONNECT WITH SOCIAL SERVICES
Clients are systematically assisted in accessing community-based social services.
ACCESS LEGAL EXPERTISE
Clients have access to civil, family, and immigration legal expertise to address concerns caused by involvement in the criminal legal system.
CHANGE THE NARRATIVE
The office systematically creates and documents persuasive mitigation, drawing on both the client’s personal history and the office’s Collaborative Defense work. 1 2 3 4 5 6
a loved one who worked with a free lawyer. It’s a staggering number of people. It's also why public defender offices are an incredible hub for transformation. Yet, faced with historical under-resourcing and high case loads, as well as being frequently misunderstood and under-valued by policymakers, the fullest potential of public defenders can often remain untapped.
We know that the legal system is touching every corner of people’s lives, from housing to healthcare. So why shouldn’t people have a defender fighting for them in all those corners, too?
Partners for Justice was founded on the belief that everyone deserves a powerful defense that can help Americans come home and come home well. We believe that race and wealth should not determine legal outcomes. And by strengthening public defense, we can not only increase equity and improve outcomes, we can speed progress toward mass decarceration.
Our model of public defense—Collaborative Defense—infuses public defense agencies with more of what their clients are asking for: better odds of coming home from jail and help with housing, jobs, healthcare access, and more. We do this by placing early-career professionals via our Client Advocate
DO YOU WANT TO LEARN MORE?
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Program, our Capacity Building Program, our training work, and through our thought leadership and communications. We're changing what people have access to inside a defender agency, bringing in new service offerings and a client-led perspective that enables defenders to more effectively work toward their clients’ goals. This combination of expanded services and powerful, mitigating storytelling in court can eliminate thousands of years of potential jail or prison time and fundamentally transform public defense in America, ushering in a more just future.
WHY PUBLIC DEFENSE?
In recent years, efforts to transform our legal system often focus on the most punitive actors in that system: prosecutors and police. Campaigns to bring less carceral prosecutors and sheriffs into power, brilliant alternatives to police, and innovative reentry efforts that protect people from re-incarceration have pushed the decarceral movement forward. But most of these efforts have overlooked a key player with astonishing reach and abilities: public defenders.
Public defenders are an incredible access point for care. They’re upstream, assigned shortly after a person has been arrested, and before the crisis of a legal case has fully unfolded. They are confidential and ethically bound to protect the interests of their clients. And when they are equipped with a Collaborative Defense team, they can offer service navigation, planning, and some direct provision of care all in a place where the impacted person is going anyway.
Collaborative Defense does not eclipse a ferocious trial practice—after all, clients want both excellent courtroom representation and help with all the corners of their lives a legal case will touch. To answer that call, and to more fully utilize the position of public defense for decarceration, we need to expand what public defenders are resourced to do.
BEYOND THE CASE
Our data demonstrates that public defender clients are almost universally struggling with urgent matters beyond their legal case:
75-90% OF DEFENDER CLIENTS FACE ISSUES LIKE HOUSING, EMPLOYMENT, HEALTH, OR FAMILY CHALLENGES THAT DISRUPT THEIR STABILITY.
No one has just one problem:
2-7 INDIVIDUALS OFTEN FACE MULTIPLE CHALLENGES SIMULTANEOUSLY WHEN NAVIGATING THE CRISIS OF A LEGAL CASE. CHALLENGES
EXPANDING PUBLIC DEFENSE IN L.A. COUNTY
The Los Angeles County Public Defender's Office serves over 10 million residents, with 1,300 staff. It is the oldest and largest public defender in the nation.
Partners for Justice began its collaboration with the county public defender's office in 2021, bringing a collaborative, client-led model to Los Angeles.
Client Advocates complete roughly 80% of the service goals they set for clients, helping thousands of individuals each year, reducing system contact and increasing impact county-wide.
Since PFJ began its partnership with the county public defender's office, it has expanded from 2 to 11 locations. In 2023, PFJ also began a partnership with the Los Angeles County Alternate Public Defender, bringing Collaborative Defense to even more people.
Public defense in America is at a turning point, a crossroad that will lead to true client-centered representation. As a profession, we have often seen the depths of what troubles America long before others took note, and we have always answered the call to step up and make change.
This truth is written into the history of the Los Angeles County Public Defender’s Office: we opened our doors in response to the people’s call for a public advocate who could counter the public prosecutor 50 years before Gideon v. Wainwright was established. As America’s largest and first public defense agency, we are proud to continue to listen to our communities, innovate, and imagine how the future will look different from the past.
It is in that spirit that we partnered with Partners for Justice. As defenders, we know how deeply damaging a criminal court matter can be to the people we represent: it’s not just their freedom, but the wellbeing of their children, their parents, and their siblings. It is their jobs, education, and the very roof over their heads that is at stake. To fully defend a person, one must think not only about what steps are needed inside the courtroom, but also what work we must do in community to ensure that every person we represent has the strongest possible chance for self-determination and to move forward with their life, and the lives of their families, intact.
Our agency serves a county of over 10 million people, with 1,300 dedicated individuals working in service of our mission, vision, and values. We chose to partner with Partners for Justice because of their track record of success, their compassion, and their expertise in the broad area of subject matter our community was asking for: help to stabilize jobs, housing, access to medicine and benefits, education, family unity, and more. Partners for Justice’s Collaborative Defense approach is exactly what we need, what the criminal legal system needs, to more powerfully meet our clients’ needs and achieve our mission and vision as the finest criminal defense firm in the nation. With Partners for Justice, we are a beacon for client-centered representation, ensuring
evolutionary and revolutionary change in the criminal legal system in America.
Partners for Justice is now working across Los Angeles County, assisting thousands of families each year with a nearly 80% service goal success rate. Our agency has garnered accolades from county and state leaders for this program, and, since launching in just two locations a few years ago, have grown to 11 with plans for broader expansion. That’s because this way of doing public defense—client-led, collaborative work that addresses both our client’s immediate needs and underlying drivers of system contact, massively increasing our decarceral impact—is the future. Not just in Los Angeles, but nationwide.
As our history makes clear, we are groundbreakers here in Los Angeles. We are proud of our history as innovators and change-makers. With Partners for Justice’s Collaborative Defense approach, we’re confident that the work we are doing in Los Angeles County today charts a course forward for the expansion of public defense nationally. We have already seen this model spread far and wide—when we joined the movement, we joined just a few sister offices in this approach. Now, Collaborative Defense has taken root in almost every region of the country, and it is exciting to see how our work in Los Angeles can and will help transform public defense nationally.
When it comes to building a better future with greater safety, economic mobility, health, equity, and freedom, defenders are essential. And collaborative defenders are leading the way."
RICARDO GARCÍA LOS ANGELES COUNTY CHIEF PUBLIC DEFENDER
for its service to the public.
PFJ’s expansion continues with the Santa Cruz County Office of the Public Defender (California), Delaware County Office of the Public Defender (Pennsylvania), Washtenaw County Office of the Public Defender (Michigan), Metropolitan Public Defender and Multnomah Defenders Inc. (Oregon), and the Kansas Holistic Defenders all joining PFJ.
JUNE 2022
PFJ begins Capacity Building work, starting with Stanislaus County, California.
JULY 2022
PFJ holds the first-ever Collaborative Defense Conference in Los Angeles.
SEPTEMBER 2022
PFJ receives the Defenders Program of the Year award from the California Public Defender Association.
SEPTEMBER 2022
PFJ receives the James S. Angus Excellence in Community Service Award from the Delaware Community Reinvestment Action Council.
OCTOBER 2022
PFJ receives the Justice Organization Award from the Davis Vanguard.
DECEMBER 2022
PFJ presents the second Legacy Award to Dawn Williams, Director of Training and Development at Delaware’s Office of Defense Services.
PFJ adds the Los Angeles County Alternate Public Defender, Linn County Advocate (Iowa), Defender Association of Philadelphia, and the San Diego County Public Defender Office to its ranks.
MARCH 2023
A law review article about Collaborative Defense is published in the Ohio State Journal on Dispute Resolution.
SEPTEMBER 2023
PFJ holds the second annual Collaborative Defense Conference in Philadelphia and awards Ann Miller, Managing Attorney, Tribal Defenders Office of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, with PFJ’s Legacy Award.
OCTOBER 2023
PFJ nets the first major national news story, a piece about Collaborative
HOW IT STARTED & HOW IT’S GOING
Partners for Justice was co-founded by two childhood friends, Emily Galvin-Almanza and Rebecca Solow, in 2017. Emily was a public defender who had practiced for nearly a decade in California and New York, and who, after an influential conversation with mentor Ben Heineman, had been thinking more and more deeply about meaningful public service opportunities for young people.
Rebecca spent her career helping nonprofit organizations and governments operate more effectively, most recently at the Boston Consulting Group, where she built the phenomenal skill set to bring this idea to life.
Partners for Justice began with 10 Client Advocates—five in Wilmington, Delaware, and five in Oakland, California—in 2018. Since then, these fierce and driven Advocates, supported by an ever-growing national team filled with talent, have demonstrated the power of a public defense system augmented by our Collaborative Defense method. As of 2024, PFJ has over 100 Advocates in the field, operating in 42 locations across 16 states. All told, between our Client Advocate Program and Capacity Building work, we’re in 19 states across the country. By the middle of 2024, Client Advocates had cumulatively served over 15,000 clients with 6,000 served halfway through 2024. We have also grown our national team from two, Emily and Rebecca, to 23 members.
These teams have shown that the Collaborative Defense method works. First, the service provision itself has been effective: on average, Collaborative Defense teams around the country are able to complete their clients’ stated goals about 75% of the time, providing over 21,000 discrete services to public defender clients thus far. In some cases, service completion rates are even higher; for example, goals related to supporting family
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HOW IT STARTED & HOW IT’S GOING
unification (77%), assisting with family financial stability by opening bank accounts or seeking fee waivers (80%), and ensuring people are able to do the things a judge requires of them in their court case (87%).
Service delivery is only the first step in an effective intervention.
Completed service goals must also lead to better outcomes for the people receiving support. This is why we’re so encouraged to see early indications that Advocates are able to drive meaningfully better outcomes for clients in a variety of service areas.
For example, in a 2023 analysis of clients served by our Bay Area team, 70% of clients who received employment-related support from an Advocate were employed at the end of their case. Among people who received support to access public assistance or healthcare coverage, 80% successfully enrolled in a new benefits program with their defender’s support. And 82% of clients who received support accessing mental health or substance use treatment were able to complete a program.
The success these low-income families derive from services offered through their public defender, of course, have a second benefit: people who are doing well in the community have a greater chance of avoiding incarceration. Collaborative Defense teams are trained to not only provide wraparound services, but to tell the story of these families and these
services in court. The result is powerful decarceration. In a separate analysis of cases in Delaware where Collaborative Defense teams had provided written “mitigation,” telling the full story of a client and their progress, the individual in question avoided incarceration 87% of the time.
Collaborative Defense isn’t just about ensuring people are safer, healthier, and more financially stable: it’s also about mass decarceration. Between 2018 and 2023, we estimate these Collaborative Defense practices eliminated over 5,000 years of incarceration.
While these results are based on early analyses of small client populations, we are optimistic that they are representative of a larger pattern. In the last year, PFJ launched two projects with researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and Stanford University to validate the outcomes of Collaborative Defense through rigorously designed external evaluations of our work.
As PFJ grew over the years, public defenders began taking notice of our work and our results. Within the first two years, we grew from
from Delaware and California to Texas and Louisiana, and then, over the next three years added Montana, Louisiana, Florida, Kansas, Missouri, and beyond—even Emily and Rebecca’s home state of Iowa. But the endgame, for us, is the buy-in of government—after all, public defense is a Constitutionally mandated service and should be publicly funded. After starting with $800,000 in gifts from a handful of true believers in 2018, nearly three-quarters of PFJ’s budget is now publicly-funded. We have routed nearly $25 million to support public defenders and Collaborative Defense practice around the country. It makes sense that governments would invest in this way: after all, every dollar spent on a public defender Client Advocate creates $3 to $6 in potential savings for local governments via reduced incarceration.
This work—now comprising a collaboration of dozens of defender agencies across the USA—has shown that we can transform defense fully in America. These Advocates and the team that trains and supports them are building a world in which every low-income family dealing with criminal court involvement has the benefit of an expert, interdisciplinary team who can help them walk away from the system with their life—and their future—intact.
FUNDING GROWTH AT A GLANCE
How contributions from individuals, foundations, and governments transformed over time:
I’ve been a defense attorney for decades. I’ve represented clients in all sorts of matters, including those whose lives were on the line as they faced the death penalty. In my many years of practice, I’ve seen multiple iterations of public defense—what it was, what it can be—but never before have I encountered the sort of impact that we’ve demonstrated since teaming with Partners for Justice. To put it simply, PFJ is one of the best things to have happened to public defense since the Gideon decision.
Before I was appointed by Gov. John Carney as Delaware’s Chief Defender, I was a lawyer in the Office of Defense Services’ (ODS) felony-level practice. I had one client in particular, whose case crystallized for me just why Collaborative Defense is the next evolution of public defense. The client was a veteran who honorably served their country. Like so many who have served overseas, my client returned home forever changed. And, unfortunately, like so many, this led to becoming justice-involved. My client faced serious charges, but, thanks to their service, was afforded the opportunity to have their charges dismissed, so long as they agreed not to have contact with their prior residence.
Normally, I would have considered my work complete, as the charges were being dismissed and the client was to be released from jail. But the reality is that this would not be the end of the story for my client. My client had multiple needs beyond legal representation—they needed a new place to live, access to their medication, and the simple dignity of being able to retrieve their personal belongings—but that was not my expertise. Unlike the old days, where I’d wish my client luck and hope for the best, I was able to enlist the help of Galyn Sumida-Ross, one of our talented Client Advocates at the time. She jumped into action and not only ensured that my client had a stable place to live and had their medication, but she even arranged for their possessions to be moved from one location to their new home. It was incredible work that, in all of my decades as a defense attorney, I’d never seen.
It’s because of her efforts that my client had a roof over their head and had the vital medication needed to function daily. When I saw how Galyn completely transformed my client’s circumstances, I knew that this was the future of public defense. Galyn had not only treated our client with the dignity they deserved, but her
actions dramatically decreased the odds that they would be further justice-involved.
At ODS, in the six years we’ve worked with PFJ, there are hundreds of stories like this: of individuals given a new opportunity, of families protected from the harms of the criminal justice system, and of freedom being preserved. In Delaware, we pride ourselves on being first (we’re the First State, after all). Yet, we’re not always first in all the right ways—especially when it comes to the criminal justice system. When it comes to public defense, however, I am so proud to say that Delaware is the first state in the nation to be practicing Collaborative Defense statewide.
Our partnership with PFJ has resulted in many things. We’ve seen incredible outcomes for our clients. We’ve been able to provide services well beyond the courtroom. And we’ve wed an already robust and zealous trial practice with Client Advocates, taking our ability to defend clients to new heights.
The practice of public defense is at a turning point in our country. When enough public defenders follow our lead and take on Collaborative Defense, I believe that we will begin to experience a criminal justice system that relies much less on locking people up and more on addressing basic human needs. We just need the resources to get enough people started down the path that ODS has walked, moving this from a pilot to a permanent transformation in the criminal court system. I am proud to know that we in Delaware were not only ahead of the curve, but, thanks to our partnership with PFJ, defined the curve.
KEVIN O’CONNELL CHIEF PUBLIC DEFENDER
WHERE WE’RE GOING NEXT
In 2024, we’re standing at a pivotal moment: we know what needs to happen to transform public defense at scale. We understand the scale of the need, have identified some of the key barriers to change, and are beginning to quantify our impact. There is tremendous appetite for this innovation, with defenders across the U.S. reaching out to PFJ for help making the transformation.
We believe there is a tipping point: at sufficient scale, jurisdictions that do not resource their defender to work on their clients’ housing, employment, health, income, or transportation problems will seem unavoidably outmoded, a relic of a past model of public defense. We’re already seeing this happening around us. The latest American Bar Association principles cite a client-led defense as a must and defenders across the country are increasing their staffing, funding, and role diversity by demonstrating to funders the inherent power of public defense. Within the next five years, we want to push ourselves as close to that tipping point as we can.
To get there, we plan to focus on covering as many Americans as we can. Focusing on statewide systems and the USA’s largest counties, we will be seeking to ensure 100 million Americans have access to a collaborative public defense program
in their hometown, aiming to reach this tipping-point figure within the current decade. Much will depend moonshot” goal will drive us to maximize our impact and reach. Because of the resource-intensive nature of our embedded teams, reaching this goal will require expansion of our capacity building and external influence practices, including the engagement of statewide capacity building partners and the Collaborative a resource kit any defender can use to begin re-imagining their practice. With such a huge stride forward, Collaborative Defense can become a new American right, helping more families avoid incarceration, stay together, keep a roof over their
As the Public Defender of Alameda County, I consider my duty to our community as one that extends far beyond the historical understanding of a public defender's role. From actively supporting legislation that promotes equality and fairness in our criminal justice system to engaging with innovative initiatives to expand access to justice, my role as a representative of our community does not end at the courthouse doors. Therefore I am proud to be one of the first two Public Defenders in the nation to use the Partners for Justice program ...
Simply put, Partners for Justice Advocates help us do more. The client who can only be released if he finds housing now has help finding permanent placement, the student whose case may be dismissed if she gets back into school now has someone fighting for her on the educational front, and the mom who needs to get access to food stamps and fight a wrongful eviction now has someone ensuring she has wraparound representation. Our lawyers are trial lawyers, brilliant at fighting for clients in criminal court, but PFJ's Advocates broaden our capacity to address an array of vital client needs. Our clients are getting better outcomes because of PFJ, and they are walking away feeling more heard, and more fought for, than ever before.
In trial work, the most informed lawyer in the room holds the power. Partners for Justice’s skill at assisting our clients with the civil consequences of criminal justice involvement directly benefits our clients, but their work has also benefitted our lawyers. Our lawyers now walk into court knowing not only every nuance of the criminal case, but every detail of what their clients are struggling with beyond the four corners of the complaint.
There are many paths that lead people into criminal court, and many struggles that arise from that arrest. Our Partners for Justice Advocates, in the course of helping clients stabilize, now learn these details and convey them to counsel so that we no longer miss mitigating information the client might not volunteer. Partners for Justice’s ability to help defense counsel, judges, and even prosecutors see the whole person rather than merely a defendant has helped shift the culture of our system. PFJ improves the administration of justice not only by helping clients stabilize and comply with court mandates, but by changing the way system players view the people who appear in court and bringing more just outcomes to bear.
I now consider this program to be an essential component of my office's holistic defense practice ... Our end goal is to have a PFJ
BRENDON WOODS, CHIEF PUBLIC DEFENDER OF ALAMEDA COUNTY AND PFJ BOARD MEMBER
CLIENT ADVOCATE PROGRAM
Our largest program, the Client Advocate Program, recruits, trains, and nurtures early-career professionals to serve as Client Advocates in public defender offices.
After two years in the criminal courts and community, these future changemakers will carry deep knowledge of the toxicity of America’s court and poverty-alleviation apparatus—making them the kind of leaders who can solve long-standing problems and carry our nation into the future. Client Advocates bring an incredible interdisciplinary skill set to public defense, broadening the service menu clients can be offered.
Securing or stabilizing housing that has been disrupted by a legal case
Assisting with reinstatement of driving privileges
Collecting documentation to advocate for fine and fee waivers
Addressing crimes of poverty, finding ways to fight for client’s licenses, or meeting low-level municipal court and ticket obligations without ruining a client’s tenuous financial stability
Engaging in systemic advocacy to lower the cost of criminal system involvement Fighting to lower or eliminate the cost of ankle monitors in Alameda County, or collaborating with other system stakeholders to combat the incredible cost of illegal car impounds.
Increasing employability for our clients
Helping with record clearance, resume preparation, interview rehearsals, job searches, and more.
From systems and benefits navigation, to specialized juvenile mitigation and assistance with early representation, recovering vehicles from the impound, helping individuals find stable housing, and connecting their clients with meaningful treatment options, their range is substantial.
Below is a sample of what the Client Advocate role brings to partner offices across the nation:
Accessing appropriate treatment programs to meet our clients’ unique substance use and mental health needs
Providing mitigating information to system stakeholders like judges who may not understand how their orders or decisions are failing to connect people with care Planning judicial education to highlight the difficulty clients face obtaining fee waivers for treatment programs in Los Angeles.
Increasing economic mobility by helping with record clearance, resume preparation, interview rehearsals, job searches, and more
Helping secure appropriate public benefits to support family financial stability and wellness
Compiling powerful mitigation to contextualize an individual’s life and improve their legal outcome
HOW DOES IT WORK?
WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
PRIYANKA SHETTY (2019-21)
One of the first Client Advocates to work with the Harris County Public Defender's Office, Priyanka went on to work with Civil Rights Corps as an Investigative Fellow following her placement. She has since gone on to study law at New York University’s School of Law.
“PFJ was a transformative experience for me. Fresh out of college and uncertain about my career path, I found myself immersed in a role that deeply resonated with my values. As a member of only the second class of Advocates at PFJ, I was part of a pioneering effort to support indigent clients, advocating for their release from jail and connecting them to essential social services. This hands-on work allowed me to witness the profound impact that zealous legal advocacy can have on individuals' lives, fundamentally shaping my passion for abolition. The relationships I built and the experiences I gained were instrumental in cementing my decision to pursue a career in law. PFJ not only clarified my professional aspirations but also instilled in me a deep commitment to justice and advocacy that continues to guide me today.”
NICO GOLDBERG (2020-22)
Since completing his placement with the Alameda County Public Defender, Nico is pursuing a joint Juris Doctor degree and master’s degree in business administration via the Francis J. & William Polk Carey JD/MBA Program at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School and the Wharton School.
“My biggest takeaway from PFJ: ‘rules’ are pliable. It takes 45 days to review low-income health insurance enrollment? Not if I call to check in four times a day.
A new arrest automatically triggers a probation violation? Not if we present mitigating circumstances. A JD/MBA was the perfect balance of structure and flexibility to continue harnessing this ethos. After graduating, I plan to co-found a company or join an early-stage venture in San Francisco.”
supervisor, overseeing the Client Advocates working in New Orleans.
“Though I was already working at OPD before I joined PFJ, my two years with PFJ really helped me gain the confidence to trust my instincts as a new advocate and, over time, gave me the opportunity to strengthen my sense of leadership and mentorship towards incoming advocates.”
Meet PFJ's current cohort of Client Advocates and learn more about what drives them.
Applicants are selected as Advocates for a two-year term. The Partners for Justice team trains Advocates in preparation for their term.
Advocates are placed as employees in a host Public Defender’s Office, where they receive local training and daily supervision and support.
Advocates support public defender clients and community members, building a network of local services, community organizations, and civil attorneys.
Public defenders and Advocates work together to reduce jail time and improve case outcomes for more people, disrupting the cycle of poverty and incarceration.
WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
Since completing her placement with the Delaware Office of Defense Services in Wilmington, Shania went on to work as a Congressional staffer.
“Being a Client Advocate with Partners for Justice was nothing short of transformational. Working with the Delaware Office of Defense Services, I directly interacted with clients, advocating on their behalf for return to the community and further supporting their needs in the community. PFJ and its network nurtured my curiosity for policy reform by connecting me with a working group focused on informing criminal justice policy for Delaware. This exposure primed me for my current role as a Congressional staffer. Handling the criminal justice portfolio for the entire state of Delaware, I can leverage connections made with PFJ and direct client experience to inform policy for a more just and equitable country. The lessons learned with PFJ have proven pivotal and continue to carry me through my career.”
Julia was one of PFJ’s inaugural class of Client Advocates. Since completing her placement with the Delaware Office of Defense Services in Wilmington, Julia went on to attend New York University’s School of Law as a “Root-Tilden-Kern” Scholar. She is now a staff attorney at Brooklyn Defender Services in the Family Defense Practice where she defends parents at risk of losing custody of their children.
“I came to PFJ after I realized I didn't actually like the career I'd planned for myself in data science, and PFJ is where I learned that I really love and want to do (and keep doing) indigent defense work.”
Frome Wolosky LLP in New York City in its corporate department.
“While my new professional role doesn't reflect my time in PFJ, my years as an Advocate and working with people with the Houston community gave me a foundation for the work I gravitated to while in law school and has set the stage for the type of work I want to be a part of in my extra-professional life going forward.”
Check out PFJ's website to hear some dispatches from the field, as well as some additional testimonials about how Client Advocates can transform defender agencies.
RODNEY’S STORY
For Rodney, things were dark in 2021. He was charged with a felony. This was not Rodney’s first interaction with law enforcement but the culmination of years of substance use, homelessness, and decades of carceral-driven turmoil. But one cold day in January, he took the first steps toward sobriety and stability, a move that began with his Collaborative Defense team.
Over the last three years, Rodney’s Client Advocates helped him complete probation,
find a job, secure stable housing, get a phone, and schedule critical medical care. Now, one year sober, Rodney is looking to the future with the help of his Client Advocates.
"This lady [his Client Advocate] she was just so nice to me. She told me she could help me. I never had that type of person… when I was living on the street… It was a big change in my life when I met her,” Rodney said. “She helped me get through probation. I would have never did it on my own.”
... now I’m on a even playing eld, and I feel con dent.
JASON, CALIFORNIA
JASON’S STORY
“When I normally get out, me and my mom basically are on our own to try to figure out how to do social security, food stamps, and general assistance. [Eliana, my Advocate, got] anything that I needed, really. Health insurance, medication, even getting clothes and whatnot, and steering me through all the paperwork that would've took me months, she had it done in a day. ... And it's such a difference to where all these things aren't weighing on me no more. It's a fresh start.
And then you got this team of people behind you, so you don't want to let them down either.
When you're working with [parole], it seems like you're not able to speak up about what you want, what you need. You're just hoping they don't throw you in jail, you know? But when you're dealing with somebody who's not in a power position above you, but instead is coaxing you along and helping you, it takes your mind and puts it in a positive area, rather than being in your negative, ‘everything's against me, I don't know what's going on, I'm lost.’ It takes it and switches it to where, yeah, now I'm on a even playing field, and I feel confident because I trust this person.” BY THE NUMBERS
101 ADVOCATES NATIONWIDE REACH
Advocates in over 40 offices across 16 states (and growing!)
6K CLIENTS Served through the first two quarters of 2024
ADVOCATE RECRUITMENT
1,125 Candidates applied in 2024
11 % Selectivity rate
70 80% %of Advocates come from low-wealth backgrounds, are system-impacted, or are first-generation college/graduate students
Guiding defender agencies in creating community-driven, collaborative missions
Designing new programs to implement elements of collaborative practice
Training staff attorneys and support staff on the enmeshed penalties of criminal legal contact
CAPACITY BUILDING
At the end of 2022, PFJ launched the first Capacity Building project, where we work with defender leadership to help them create their own version of Collaborative Defense more broadly, and quickly. For example, we supported the Missouri State Public Defender to launch its statewide Holistic Defense Services division in just over three months. Capacity-building support offers the reach and flexibility we need to make Collaborative Defense available to half of Americans in the next five years and transform public defense across the nation.
Creating tools for collaboration, like intake forms, referrals, and dashboards
Mapping local community resources and developing resource guides
Developing internal procedures to make Collaborative Defense practices long-lasting
Designing job descriptions and enhancing recruitment strategies
Partnering with Public Defender Offices on public and private funding requests
Expanding external and internal communications efforts
WHAT PROJECTS HAVE WE WORKED ON?
Supported the implementation of community defense hubs in Chicago through an innovative, community-based planning process
Partnered with the Missouri State Public Defender to implement a statewide Holistic Defense Services Unit to reach all of Missouri's communities, rural to urban areas
Supported the implementation of mitigation specialists in county public defender offices throughout the state of Illinois
Revamped the Stanislaus County Public Defender’s client support unit, from staffing to services
Supported Marion County in Indiana with the implementation of an innovative multi-agency partnership to provide collaborative services
Moving forward, we seek to increase the number of capacity building projects we take on annually, and focus to the greatest extent possible on larger, farther-reaching, and more influential systems. This means partnering with more statewide defender agencies, large counties, and perhaps seeking out more opportunities to combine capacity building and Client Advocate Program services, as we have in Missouri. We are also developing a Collaborative Defense In A Box toolkit, giving defender agencies the ability to quickly adapt their practices.
I learned about Partners for Justice in 2022 when we were in the early stages of creating a holistic defense program at Missouri State Public Defender. I was thrilled when PFJ agreed to advise us in the monumental task of creating a statewide holistic defense program—in a mostly rural, conservative state—with little to no resources. PFJ’s partnership has been invaluable. Having a team to help navigate issues that come up when you’re building a new program, and benefitting from the lessons they have learned over the years, saved us from making costly mistakes or having to reinvent the wheel. After benefitting from PFJ’s support in developing our program, we asked them to place Advocates in some of our offices, which has enabled us to grow our program in a way that would not be possible without their support.”
EXTERNAL INFLUENCE
Transforming public defense—not just here and there, but everywhere—is an audacious goal, and re-imagining a massive public system with deeply entrenched challenges requires influence and support.
Since PFJ officially launched operations in 2018, we’ve been intentional about how we communicate this work. It’s not enough to reach the people who already believe in this work. If we want to make Collaborative Defense the national norm, we must make it part of the national conversation. By writing op-eds, being quoted as experts, and securing earned media spots nationwide, like in the New Yorker and on KQED’s syndicated call-in show, "Forum," we are showing and telling the story of how an expanded public defense is the key to a smarter legal system and safer communities and that what we’re doing is revolutionary.
To communicate the power of public defense, we need effective messengers. That’s why, in the short- and long-term, we’re broadening our efforts. We’re empowering our staff as well as individuals directly impacted by this work to tap into their deep wells of knowledge and experience, and participate in the long road to transform public defense in America. Our power comes from our collective experiences and perspectives, and we’re excited to share those stories with the world.
It is astounding to me the amount of work and the quality of work that these Advocates are putting out. Their passion for the work that we are doing is unmatched and it has resulted in significant positive impacts for my clients on a daily basis.”
TAYLOR DUNN CHIEF OF THE PRETRIAL DIVISION, DELAWARE COUNTY OFFICE
OF THE PUBLIC DEFENDER
SOURCE: WHYY, 03/04/24
Jamir Graham, PFJ Client Advocate, poses at KQED, the public radio station for the San Francisco area. Jamir appeared on the station's nationally-syndicated call-in show, "Forum", to discuss PFJ and his role as a Client Advocate.
Partners for Justice's work in Los Angeles County and its collaboration with Uber was featured on Spectrum News.
Scan here or click on images to view recent Press
Are you getting the services we talked about? How are you doing with food, with housing, with health treatments? That follow-up is so important.”
KEISHA HUDSON CHIEF DEFENDER, DEFENDER ASSOCIATION OF PHILADELPHIA
SOURCE: THE PHILADELPHIA CITIZEN, NOVEMBER 2023
Ivy Harris, PFJ Client Advocate with the Los Angeles County Public Defender's Office, appears in-studio with Tavis Smiley on KBLA 1580 am to discuss PFJ, Collaborative Defense, and the role of a Client Advocate.
TRAINING
When we started PFJ, we knew that to transform public defense nationwide, we needed to not only partner with defenders to build collaborative services, but also offer them the tools they could use to build it themselves. That’s why we are proud to offer highly effective, accessible training to defender teams all across the country.
When we create training, it’s never one-size-fits-all. We work with public defense leadership, attorneys, social workers, advocates, navigators, investigators, and other staff and allies on building the means to transition toward client-led, collaborative practices—both as individual practitioners and as an office. As we look forward, we are broadening our reach for training, targeting even more diverse audiences, developing additional training built on our existing Capacity Building and Client Advocate Program experiences, and internally developing the capacity of our team to deliver training.
MISSOURI STATE PUBLIC DEFENDER TRAINING
Partners for Justice was critical to realizing our vision of using Client Support Specialists to provide holistic services to Stanislaus County Public Defender clients.
Our partnership allowed us to develop and build out our existing Client Support team and expand holistic services for our clients. PFJ supported us in defining and expanding the CSS role, recruiting and training CSS staff and attorneys, improving our intake process to pinpoint client needs, and implementing a database to track CSS casework. When you work with PFJ, you have access to a team with incredible knowledge and experience.
That unmatched understanding of public defense systems allowed us to elevate the legal representation and services we provide to our clients and shift the culture to a more client-led model of representation. By implementing what we have learned, we are able to fundamentally improve our clients’ experiences and secure more just outcomes."
JENNIFER JENNISON CHIEF DEFENDER
STANISLAUS COUNTY PUBLIC DEFENDER
VISION WORKSHOPS —WHO ARE YOU AS A DEFENDER AGENCY?
FUNDRAISING AND STRENGTHENING BUDGET REQUESTS FOR CHIEF DEFENDERS
LANGUAGE AND WHY IT MATTERS
OFFICE PROFILES
With 101 Client Advocates placed in 28 agencies across 16 states, PFJ teams bring a unique skillset to their host offices, enhancing the service menu defender agencies offer the people they serve. Over the next few pages, we’re spotlighting the amazing work Advocates are doing across the country.
One Note: These profiles do not include partner offices added in July 2024. More on those exciting partnerships soon!
PFJ SITES
• Alameda County Public Defenders, California
• Defender Association of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Delaware County Office of the Public Defender, Pennsylvania
• State of Delaware Office of Defense Services
• Harris County Public Defender's Office, Texas
• Linn County Advocate, Iowa
• Los Angeles County Public Defender’s Office, California
• The Office of the Alternate Public Defender, Los Angeles, California
• Metropolitan Public Defender, Oregon
• Miami-Dade Public Defender’s Office, Florida
• Missouri State Public Defender
• Multnomah Defenders, Inc., Oregon
• Orleans Public Defenders, Louisiana
• San Diego County Public Defender, California
• Santa Cruz County Office of the Public Defender, California
• San Mateo County Private Defender Program, California
• Washtenaw County Office of Public Defender, Michigan
• Yolo County Public Defender’s Office, California
ALAMEDA COUNTY PUBLIC DEFENDERS, CALIFORNIA
Partners for Justice has been incredibly lucky in the brilliant, innovative partnerships that have informed our work from day one. When PFJ teamed up to pilot our method with the public defender’s office in 2018, Alameda County already had a robust holistic defense practice and an extremely developed and respected voice within both its own community and the public defense community nationwide. Now, six years later, we can look back and say that Alameda County, along with our other pilot site in Delaware, was where we fully realized the potential of Client Advocates’ work as transformational.
KEY FACT
In Alameda County, 60-70 percent of clients who ask for help with housing or employment actually secure them before their criminal case closes with the support of the PFJ Client Advocate team. In 2022, we were honored to have Brendon Woods, Alameda’s Chief Defender, join the PFJ Board.
Having [Client Advocates] has been ENORMOUSLY helpful. Most of my clients have non-legal needs that I don’t have the time or skills to help with; having [Client Advocates] not only gives my clients resources that help them improve their lives and avoid recidivism, but also allows me to have the bandwidth to focus on the legal aspects of each client’s case.”
CLAIRE LOWINGER-IVERSON
Felony Preliminary Hearing Team
ALAMEDA COUNTY PUBLIC DEFENDER
DEFENDER ASSOCIATION OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA
DELAWARE COUNTY OFFICE OF THE PUBLIC DEFENDER, PENNSYLVANIA
The Defender Association of Philadelphia joined PFJ in 2023, advocating hard with both local and state governments to secure the resources to expand their practice. In the City of Brotherly Love, Client Advocates concentrate their practice in very specific areas, like juvenile advocacy and community supervision.
its jail. The new responsibility for jail administration incentivized the county to seek strategies that would lower the jail population, and the Chief Defender stepped in at that moment to argue for expansion and to join the PFJ program. In 2022, our first Pennsylvania partnership was born.
KEY FACT
KEY FACT
Philadelphia represents PFJ’s growing foray into the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The success of our partnership with Delaware County gave Chief Defender Keisha Hudson the evidence and proof of concept she needed to convince city funders that a partnership with PFJ is worthwhile.
Not only have we successfully eliminated jail time for our clients in Delco, but we’re also helping existing programs work better. For example, prior to PFJ, success rates with the county’s Law Enforcement Treatment Initiative hovered below 35%. Since the Advocates began working with clients, that number has increased to nearly 50%.
STATE OF DELAWARE OFFICE OF DEFENSE SERVICES
The Delaware Office of Defense Services was one of PFJ’s original pilot sites in 2018, and also the first partner to successfully bring Collaborative Defense statewide. Through our work in Delaware, we’ve shown that adding Client Advocates to an already ferocious trial practice is a potent combination.
KEY FACT
In the last year, when Advocates in Delaware filed mitigation—on both misdemeanor and felony cases—87% of those cases were resolved without incarceration, and 71% were either dismissed outright or given a path to dismissal through diversion.
Before we had Partners for Justice Client Advocates, I did all my own mitigation. Now, the Client Advocates work with our clients to collect proof of employment and education, gather character letters, write mitigation reports, and help get evidence of treatment or other types of classes like domestic violence, parenting, and anger management. Not only do they save me time herding cats (as it were), but they do it more quickly and thereby get me better results, earlier in a case. An early case dismissal saves me so much time preparing a case for various hearings or trial.”
Family Court Supervisor DELAWARE OFFICE OF DEFENSE SERVICES
MISTY SEEMANS
The Harris County Public Defender's Office was not just PFJ’s third site in the country, joining us in 2019, but also marked the first site to invest in Advocate roles directly, using public (rather than philanthropic) dollars to permanently expand their team with PFJ’s support. For Harris County, Advocates were just the beginning: the office built out a robust holistic defense unit in the years that followed our arrival. We’re proud to have had our 2019 Advocate class contribute to the tone for the client-led advocacy this office prioritizes.
LOS ANGELES COUNTY PUBLIC DEFENDER’S OFFICE, CALIFORNIA
The Linn County Advocate is one of PFJ’s newer sites, joining in 2023, but it holds a dear place in the hearts of Emily and Rebecca, native Iowans from neighboring Johnson County. Our work with the Linn County Advocate, an innovative nonprofit defender agency operating alongside the statewide public defender, is also notable in that this office utilized American Rescue Plan Act funding to bring in an Advocate team, pointing out how much the extra support of Advocates could aid in pandemic recovery efforts. Partners for Justice’s two Client Advocates in Iowa are deeply enmeshed in the community, and both volunteer at local organizations on the weekend. One even volunteers as a Court Appointed Special Advocate for children in crisis.
KEY FACT
Harris County grew quickly, and has remained our largest single-site team, with eight Client Advocates in place since 2020.
KEY FACT
Our success in Linn County has been noticed, and we’re now accepting external referrals from the statewide public defender system, which is the first for our operations nationwide.
In 2021, we were honored to begin a partnership with the Los Angeles County Public Defender’s Office, the nation's oldest and largest public defender agency. When PFJ teamed up with L.A., the office already had a robust, client-led vision for the work. Advocates helped align that vision with the real needs of constituents. Now, Los Angeles is our single biggest partner location, with 25 Advocates across eight branch offices of this venerable defender. Client Advocates have made such an impact that their work has resulted in two formal commendations from the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors.
KEY FACT
These teams are some of our most active in community-based expungement fairs, warrant clearance events, and other public opportunities for the defender to engage the public. Most recently, Client Advocates with the Compton Branch held an expungement fair, assisting with 76 expungements, and filed 200 petitions.
KEY FACT
In the past year, APD Client Advocates supported nearly 400 clients, both adults and kids. Much of their work focused on helping clients obtain and complete diversion programs— leading to case dismissals—and creating re-entry plans to ensure safe and supported transitions for returning citizens. agency is assigned doesn’t define which services an individual will receive. And thanks to APD’s innovative pursuit of resources for their clients, we were able to build the a partnership with Uber that allows PFJ clients to get free rides to vital court dates and appointments.
It was in 2022 when PFJ first started operating in the Pacific Northwest, bringing on both the Metropolitan Public Defender and the Multnomah Defender as sites for Client Advocates. When Client Advocates started in Portland in December, they hit the ground running and have been on a roll ever since, opening 314 cases in 2023, with a strong emphasis on housing and health-related goals in a jurisdiction with high-profile challenges related to substance use disorders and housing shortages. In fact, Client Advocates were so adept that over 80% of clients’ service goals were met.
KEY FACT
The four Client Advocates with the Metropolitan Public Defender are specially trained to give testimony during preventative detention hearings, providing critical information to protect clients from the innumerable harms of pretrial detention.
dedicated specifically to working with children. Children arrested in Miami are given a heightened level of care, via Florida’s One Child Program, and PFJ Advocates played a critical role in fulfilling this program's promise, leaning heavily on their mitigation skills. Client Advocates made such a difference that when the office graduated from PFJ’s programming in 2024, the two Client Advocates on site were retained as full-time employees.
KEY FACT
Miami was the first office PFJ worked with in which the Chief Defender was an elected official. It’s also the first site at which Advocates exclusively worked with children.
Our collaboration with the Missouri State Public Defender first began in 2022, when we teamed up with Chief Defender Mary Fox on a capacity building project to realize her goal of making Missouri the largest and best holistic practice in the United States. Now, in 2024, Missouri is on track to realize that vision and, in the ultimate vote of confidence in PFJ, invited us to place seven Client Advocates at sites across the state. Although Client Advocates have only been on the ground for a short while, they’ve already made an impact. In one instance, a Client Advocate played an integral role, connecting an individual with complex needs to the things they needed, such as housing and mentorship, to begin breaking the cycle of incarceration that had defined much of their life thus far.
KEY FACT
Missouri funds PFJ’s operations largely with proceeds from the state’s cannabis legalization, demonstrating one key way that governments can think outside of the box to bolster public defense.
In 2022, PFJ joined forces with the Multnomah Defenders, bringing two Client Advocates to one of the two public defense providers in Portland. Since Client Advocates began in December 2022, they have been all-action, connecting clients with critical aid from free cellphones and discounted transportation for individuals with disabilities to making sure clients get to court.
KEY FACT
Between the Multnomah Defenders and the Metropolitan Defenders, PFJ has coverage across the entirety of Portland. Portland is also the first location where PFJ had two teams partnering with two different agencies in the same city.
We began collaborating with the Orleans Public Defender in 2020, with the team—our first in the South—augmenting the office’s Client Services Division. In what’s now one of the country’s most difficult landscapes for public defense, PFJ Client Advocates have thrived, providing extensive service navigation and mitigation support to clients and their attorneys. This often means providing services well beyond the criminal case, when a client asks for ongoing help. One example is a client who discovered she was pregnant while in custody—her Client Advocate began working to bring her home, connected her with supportive services after her release (including a doula!), and has seen her through to now beginning a new career as a phlebotomist.
KEY FACT
Client Advocates embedded in New Orleans are among the best within PFJ at connecting individuals with health-related services and navigating multiple programs to ensure clients receive the care that they and their families need.
the San Diego County Public Defender began in 2023 after being connected with the county’s Office of Equity and Racial Justice. We now have three Client Advocates on the ground who demonstrate day in and day out that when we invest in public defense, we increase public safety and equity in the legal system. Day to day, this looks like making sure we find transportation for parents to be with their detained children, tracking down hundreds of documents to show why a child deserves a chance to come home, or even showing up to celebrate our client’s high school graduation.
KEY FACT
Our collaboration with the San Diego County Public Defender is PFJ’s largest child-focused practice. Here, PFJ Client Advocates work alongside youth service coordinators, education specialists, and other team members to help the SDCPDO Juvenile Unit embrace a holistic model that centers on the goals and overall well-being of their young clients and their families.
Joining in 2022, Santa Cruz was our first partnership in which PFJ operations were baked into the construction of an entirely new public defense entity. It was a unique opportunity for PFJ to be part of something new and exciting. Since Client Advocates began, they have played a key role in ensuring the office’s mission of a client-centered holistic approach is realized, opening 774 cases in the two years they’ve been on the ground.
KEY FACT
Client Advocates in Santa Cruz are among the only advocates across PFJ who conduct early representation work at the local jail. This means that when individuals are first arrested and held, a Client Advocate is on hand to help determine their immediate, urgent needs.
office in 2024. Since they joined, Client Advocates have helped individuals complete treatment, make their court dates on time, and even reduce bail. This is the first time that PFJ has been embedded within a panel system, a tremendously exciting development. Though institutional defenders represent more clients across America, most of America’s geography is covered by panel systems. Demonstrating in San Mateo that Collaborative Defense works for panels as well as institutional defenders is a crucial step toward our vision of national scale.
KEY FACT
In San Mateo, Client Advocates are playing a critical role in providing mitigation pre-adjudication, protecting clients (and their families) from the harms of incarceration. In one instance, a Client Advocate worked with PFJ's Director of Family Defense Initiatives to keep a mother and her baby together post-arrest.
SANTA CRUZ COUNTY OFFICE OF THE
In 2021, Partners for Justice began collaborating with the Tribal Defenders Office for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. This was PFJ’s first-ever collaboration with a tribal defender. With CSKT, we are fortunate enough to work with an incredibly innovative Chief Defender in Ann Miller, who has not only built civil legal services into her practice but also transformed an old hotel into over 20 units of supportive housing for her clients. While some defenders fight for housing, Ann made housing. Ann received PFJ’s Legacy Award in 2023 for her leadership and contributions to the public defense field.
WASHTENAW COUNTY OFFICE OF PUBLIC DEFENDER, (ANN ARBOR), MICHIGAN
Partners for Justice joined forces with the Washtenaw County Office of the Public Defender in 2022, placing two advocates with the office. There, Client Advocates played a major role in building out the office’s Advocacy Intervention and Mitigation Unit. The work and services advocates provided were so impactful that their role was made permanent within the first two-year cycle of the office and the office graduated from the program in record time.
YOLO COUNTY PUBLIC DEFENDER’S OFFICE, CALIFORNIA
In 2021, the Yolo County Public Defender’s Office began collaborating with PFJ. Advocates embedded with Yolo County sunk their teeth into a variety of activities, including literacy programs for incarcerated individuals, a voter registration drive, and Project HomeKey, California’s effort to aid unhoused people within the state. But Client Advocates didn’t stop there. They also helped with Yolo’s already robust reentry practice, creating reentry plans to assist individuals in returning home.
KEY FACT
Advocates embedded with CSKT provide more services per client (over 7) than any other PFJ site across the country.
KEY FACT
Washtenaw County was PFJ’s first operation in the Midwest.
KEY FACT
Client Advocates with Yolo County are the only PFJ team members who are assisting with Prosecutor-Initiated Resentencing, creating narratives and documents so compelling they can convince a prosecutor to recall a prison term.
Every day, people facing legal problems encounter challenges which can rapidly escalate to become life-altering problems. These challenges are more safely, easily, and efficiently resolved through early intervention. You helped us bring 100 Client Advocates to over 40 locations nationwide. Now, we’re thinking even bigger. We can reach 150 million Americans in the next six years and make Collaborative Defense the national norm with your support. Help us reach this goal through your donations.
A tax-deductible donation to Partners for Justice supports community members facing criminal charges and provides a young person with an opportunity to serve. Every donation goes directly to hire, train, and support Advocates in the field and allows PFJ to offer support to more clients and employ more Advocates every year. PFJ is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and our EIN is 82-1202125. You can donate on our website at www.partnersforjustice.org/ donate or via mail.
Our mailing address is 244 5th Avenue, Suite R277, New York NY 10001.
THANK YOU
Transforming public defense across the United States is not a solo effort. When we first embarked on this journey, some seven years ago, we did not know where it would take us, but we did know that to get to our destination, we’d need the help and support of many, many people. It’s with deep gratitude and thanks that we want to acknowledge all of our board members, donors, supporters, and the various foundations that believe in our work. We especially want to thank our partner offices, particularly those pilot sites, that, in 2018, took a leap of faith by bringing on our very first cohort of Client Advocates. Which brings us to the Advocates and the amazing members of our national staff. Partners for Justice could not and would not work without the efforts of our brilliant and driven Advocates and the dedicated PFJ staff that support this work. Their efforts are the foundation on which this revolution of public defense is built, and we want to acknowledge each and every one of them.
Thank you so much.
Founder and Co-Executive Director
Emily Galvin-Almanza Rebecca Solow Founder and Co-Executive Director
Aarish Rojiani
Aaron Lee
Abby Steckel
Abigail Edwards
Adam Moustafa
Adrianna Ferguson
AJ Ballard
Alani Ray
Alexander Berry
Alexandra Sarkis
Alexis Lopez
Allyson Bondy
Alondra Orozco
Amber Susano
Aminadi Añorve
Andrea Dager
Andrea Hernandez
Andrew Bilodeau
Andrew Lopez
Anna Bauman
Anna Brodsky
Annabelle Fisher
Annie Chen
Antonio Ivarra
Ariana Cabrales-Ramos
Ashley Nguyen
Beau Serrano
Benjamin Hernandez
Betelhem Wolde
Brian Garcia
Brooke Davis
Callie Escudero
Cam Hollenquest
Cameryn Scott
Carly Frieders
Carolina Arango
Carolyn Sacco
Cassidy Fitz-Randolph
Chance Curtis
Charlee Evans
Christian Mancheno
Christina Becerra
Christina Higashi Howard
Christine Fung
Cíara Carlyle
Cierra Carlson
Cristian Martinez
Dafne Maria Gonzalez
Daisy Flores
Dani Doss
Daniel Moreno
Danielle Hopkins Davis Rich
Dean Hart
Deborah Marini
Destiny Rosulme
Dia Paudyal
Diego Cardenas
Eli Mensing
Elia Morelos
Eliana Swerdlow
Elizabeth Roka
Elizabeth Stroud
Emilio Espinal
Emily Arbelo
Emily Bach
Emily Lucas
Emily Santiana
Erin Hamill
Eryn Yuen
Ethan Perryman
Eva Itzel Rodriguez
Evie Gentile
Gabe Maggio
Galyn Sumida-Ross
Gelsy Rodriguez
Gerald Stratford
Gibran Khalil
Gilli Weinstein
Ginikachi Okeke
Gloria Beltran
Grace Benefiel
Grace Clinton
Grace Wilson
Guadalupe Tello
Hana Belmonte-Ryu
Hayley Espinoza
Hennah Vohra
Hollis Potts
Ian Homsy
Imari Reynolds
Issis Haydel
Ivy Harris
Ivy San
Jamir Graham
Jaskiran Walia
Jasmine Elhawary
Jaya Duckworth
Jennifer Contreras Ochoa
Jim Stehlin
Jin Heo
Joey Gonzalez
Jolie Stallone
Joseph Cohn
Jule Aschhoff
Julia Bodson
Julie Astorga
Julieta Garcia
Jyanni Thomas
Kaitlyn Hoofnagle
Kamren Bell
Kelly Li
Keneé Williams
Kiran Grewal
Kunovenu Haimbodi
Kyle Hill
Kylee Monkiewicz
Latoya White
Lavina Kalwani
Leana Lindsay
Lillian Nathanson
Lillian Pickett
Lisa Livingston
Lizette Nuno
Lucy McAuliffe
Lyndsey Wickliffe
Madeleine Gilson
Mae Redmond
Magdalena Blaise
Maren Frye
Margo Hu
Mari Visscher
Mariah Stennis
Maribeth Erwood
Marin Callaway
Marin Cummings
Mark Williams
Marlyn Zuno
Martin Washington
Matt Allen
Matt Ospina
Matthew Schwabel
Maya Perrelli
Megan Henderson
Melanie Nolan
Melissa Simon
Merrill Steeg
Mia Barr
Mia Inglis
Micah Jamieson
Michael Queener
Mick Kligler
Millie Hernandez
Mira Bader
Miranda Lopez
Moira Shoush
Nate Joseph
Nephy Smith
Nick Balfe
Nico Goldberg
Noa Nevo
Noura Lamb
Olivia Louthen
Olivia Putnam
Orlando Vargas
Paola Lopez
Paris Barnes
Paulina Olvera
Peter Brown
Priscila Guillen
Priyanka Shetty
Quetzal Ruvalcaba
Rachel Kamis
Rahmel Robinson
Rebecca Perloff
Roxanne Barnes
Ruth Mercedes
Ryan Cieslukowski
Ryan McIntyre
Sam Lin-Sommer
Sam Norrito
Samantha Lingard
Samantha Reimer
Sarah Mares
Sarina Zhou
Sebastian Duffy
Shanai Watson
Shanericka Mathew
Shania Trammell
Shanink Enriquez
Sidney Velasquez
Skye Fredericks
Sophia Helfand
Sophie Cloarec
Sophie Kupetz
Soyeon Kim
Sumyya Wright
Susannah Gale
Tadeo Ilarde
Tamara Avila
Tristan McCallister
Vanessa Rodriguez
Wan Qi Kong
Wesley Streicher
Zeke Harrington
Ashley Payne
Cheyne Castroni
Dale Walker
Dana Rafferty
Daniel Mendoza
Daphne McGee
Freda Shindel Spencer
Jess Yu
John Bonacorsi
Jon Offredo
Katharine Boasberg
Keyasia Downs
Lenora Easter
Levi LaChappelle
Mary Anne Mendenhall
Mykael Ornbaun
Reza Chapel
Tatiana Ziff
Tori Anderson
Vichal Kumar
Yonina Alexander
Amy Nelson
Ben W. Heineman, Jr.
Brendon Woods
Chrisfino Kenyatta Leal
Eric Budin
Mel Ochoa
Michelle De La Isla
Stacey Walker
Stephen Graham
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