National Police Accountability Project

Our Mission

National Police Accountability Project (NPAP) is a 501(c)(3) organization and a project of the National Lawyers Guild, which was founded in 1937 as the first racially integrated national bar association. In 1999, NPAP was created as a non-profit to protect the human and civil rights of individuals in their encounters with law enforcement and detention facility personnel. The central mission of NPAP is to promote the accountability of law enforcement officers and their employers for violations of the Constitution and the laws of the United States.

With hundreds of members and growing, we continue to effect change in the flawed legal system and fight to put an end to police brutality of all forms. NPAP does not provide legal representation to victims of law enforcement misconduct. If you are looking for an attorney, please visit our Attorney Referral Listing and feel free to contact us if you require additional referrals.

Staff

Pronouns: she/her

Lauren is the Executive Director of the National Police Accountability Project. Prior to joining NPAP, Lauren was the Legal Director of the ACLU Kansas.

Before her time with the ACLU, Lauren served as Assistant General Counsel at the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) where she provided legal support to the union's Fight for $15 campaign. She has represented low-income workers in employment and civil rights litigation, including voting rights cases in Alabama and North Carolina.

Lauren received her law degree from Duke University. While in law school, Lauren held summer positions at the Texas Civil Rights Project and Equal Rights Advocates. She also participated in the school's Guantanamo Defense Clinic.

Lauren is Kansas native from Hutchinson and attended the University of Kansas for her undergraduate degree. At KU, Lauren was a two-time Division I All-American in Track and Field. She resides in Kansas City with her husband, Jack and dog, Dover.

She can be reached at legal.npap@nlg.org.

Pronouns: she/her

Mary is the Development and Finance Director for the National Police Accountability Project.

Prior to joining NPAP, Mary was the Director of Development at the ACLU of Washington. Under her leadership individual donations increased seven-fold and the development team adopted an antiracist fundraising approach. She is proud to have been a part of the ACLU’s victories in Washington state including the passage of marriage equality and the legalization of marijuana keeping thousands out of the criminal legal system.

Before her time at the ACLU-WA, Mary served as the Director of Marketing at Planned Parenthood Mar Monte in San Jose, CA.

Mary received her MBA in International Business from the Middlebury Institute at Monterey and a BA in Russian Studies from Florida State University.

Mary grew up in Florida, but has embraced the Pacific Northwest as her home for more than 20 years where she lives with her dog Boba, cat Newt and her 35-year-old turtle Alfred. Her beloved son Connor is in college.

She can be reached at mary.npap@nlg.org

Pronouns: she/her

Keisha is a Staff Attorney for the National Police Accountability Project.

Prior to joining NPAP, Keisha was an Associate at Shearman & Sterling LLP where she worked on litigation and investigation matters. She has represented plaintiffs in civil litigation matters, including a voting rights case in Arkansas and litigation related to the release of police misconduct reports in New York.

Keisha received her law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law and her BA in Political Science and International Studies from Northwestern University. While in law school, Keisha interned at the Federal Public Defender for the Eastern District of Virginia. She also participated in Virginia Law's Criminal Defense Clinic and the Law and Public Service Program.

Keisha resides in Washington, D.C. with her partner, Matthew, and their cats, Pancake and Muffin.

She can be reached at keisha.npap@nlg.org.

Pronouns: she/her

Eliana is the Berkeley Law Public Interest Fellow at the National Police Accountability Project.

Eliana received her law degree from Berkeley Law and her BA in Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania. While in law school, Eliana interned at the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office, the East Bay Community Law Center’s Youth Defender Clinic, and the ACLU Criminal Law Reform Project. She also externed for Judge Marsha Berzon on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Prior to law school, Eliana was a community organizer at the New Settlement Parent Action Committee, where she worked with families in the Bronx to disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline.

Eliana lives in Berkeley, California with her wife, Celeste, and their dog, Beluga.

She can be reached at fellow.npap@nlg.org.

Pronouns: he/him

Devontae is a legal fellow at NPAP. He received his law degree from the University of Pennsylvania and his bachelor's degree, cum laude, from American University in Washington, D.C. At Penn Law, Devontae was a recipient of the full-tuition Toll Public Interest Scholarship, participated in the Legislative Clinic and Advocacy for Racial and Civil Justice Clinic, and was a teaching assistant for 1L Criminal Law. He  also served as an associate editor for both The Regulatory Review and the Journal of Law and Social Change. Devontae held summer internships at the Constitutional Accountability Center and NPAP, and he was involved with various pro bono projects. His original research on police oversight in Philadelphia was published as the winning submission of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review's Dorothy E. Roberts Public Interest Essay Competition.

Originally from New York City, Devontae worked in politics and policy advocacy in Washington, D.C. before law school. He is passionate about veganism, pop culture, and urbanism. Devontae currently resides in Philadelphia with his partner and his dog.

Pronouns: she/her

Michelle Dahl is a Justice Catalyst Legal Fellow at the National Police Accountability Project. Through her fellowship, she is working to create a comprehensive resource hub and network to empower public defenders who identify constitutional violations by law enforcement against their clients and communities.

Michelle earned her J.D. cum laude from the New York University School of Law, where she participated in the Civil Rights in the Criminal Legal System Clinic and the Global Justice Clinic and was an editor for the Review of Law and Social Change. She also worked in summer internships with the Family Justice Law Center in New York and Promise of Justice Initiative in New Orleans.

Prior to law school, she worked for several years in nonprofit development, dedicated a year to living and working in a Palestinian community in Jerusalem, and served as an AmeriCorps member in Western Massachusetts leading after-school programs for middle school youth. She earned her B.A. cum laude from Smith College where she studied government with a minor in religion. She also graduated with honors by vote of the faculty from the United Lutheran Seminary in Philadelphia, where she earned a Master of Arts in Public Leadership studying the intersections of interfaith community organizing and social justice movements.

Michelle grew up in Maryland and now resides in Brooklyn, New York.

Pronouns: she/they

Catherine is NPAP’s Social Media & Communications Coordinator. Originally from New York City, she has lived in New Orleans and worked in nonprofit communications since 2014. She was most recently at the New Orleans Abortion Fund, where she worked on strategy and outreach to support legislative advocacy and increase access to abortion care.

For press inquiries and other communications needs, contact her at media.npap@nlg.org.

Pronouns: she/her

Jane is NPAP's Programs and Operations Manager. She previously worked for Court Watch NOLA, providing legal observation and broader organizational support. She graduated from Stanford University in 2019, where she was a pre-medical student and studied Comparative Literature.

She can be contacted at operations.npap@nlg.org.

Pronouns: she/her

Re’Neisha is NPAP's Office Coordinator. She previously worked for New Orleans Communications District as an emergency dispatcher working alongside the New Orleans Fire, Medical, & Police Departments to provide emergency life-saving instructions and dispatch the appropriate emergency personnel to the public when situations are at their most critical. 

She graduated from Southeastern Louisiana University in December 2019, where she received her Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice. During her time as an undergrad, Re’Neisha studied abroad in Cuba, focusing on criminal and social justice issues. She later became a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for Child Advocacy Services & advocated for children who were abused and neglected.

Re’Neisha has served nine years and remains active in the Army Reserves. She has assisted during multiple natural disasters to ensure health, protection, and welfare to the citizens of the United States. 

Re’Neisha is a native to New Orleans, LA and lives with her partner, Mohamed, and their daughter, Sade.

She can be contacted at assistant.npap@nlg.org.

Officers of the Executive Committee

Jon Feinberg focuses his practice on civil rights litigation and criminal defense.  He is an experienced trial lawyer and appellate litigator, having successfully tried cases and argued appeals in both state and federal court. He specializes in cases involving wrongful convictions and prosecutions of innocent persons, the excessive use of force by police and correctional officers, the unconstitutional denial of medical care to prisoners, and the unlawful incarceration of persons in immigration custody. Mr. Feinberg is an adjunct faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, where he teaches a class on civil rights litigation.

Anna Benvenutti Hoffmann is a partner at Neufeld Scheck & Brustin, a small law firm in New York focusing on wrongful conviction, police brutality, and other serious civil rights suits. Anna’s work at all stages of litigation—from filing of a complaint to trial and appeal—has helped secure more than a dozen significant verdicts and settlements around the country, including the largest wrongful conviction jury verdict ever awarded.

Julia Yoo is a nationally known civil rights attorney, based in San Diego, California. She is the most recent past president of the National Police Accountability Project (NPAP), the country’s largest civil rights attorneys’ organization. She is the first woman and the first person of color to lead the organization.

A partner in the law firm of Iredale and Yoo, APC, Ms. Yoo has devoted her career to protecting the rights of people whose voices might otherwise go unheard. Right out of law school, she founded a nonprofit and litigated on behalf of women prisoners raped by Colorado corrections officers. In just three years, Ms. Yoo successfully settled lawsuits and exacted over a million dollars on behalf of prisoners – litigation that had far reaching effects on policy as the state’s correctional system moved to reduce sexual assault and improve medical care for female inmates.

Twenty-two years later, nearly her entire practice is dedicated to arguing for the rights of individuals infringed upon by the police and the government – entities that often devote enormous resources to prolonged legal battles. Ms. Yoo has represented more than 100 plaintiffs in civil rights matters, including Daniel Chong in his famous case against the Drug Enforcement Agency. A substantial part of her work is performed pro bono.

Ms. Yoo has co-authored three briefs filed with the United States Supreme Court, and nearly a dozen amicus briefs in appellate courts across the country, addressing the rights of mentally ill, homeless, and disabled people killed in encounters with police and of immigrants and noncitizens mistreated by federal agents.  Particularly of note, Ms. Yoo wrote a brief that led to a landmark Ninth Circuit Court decision on the police use of the taser and filed an amicus brief in the Tenth Circuit on the rights of individuals to film police interactions. 

Teaching law students, speaking nationally at conferences and frequently in the press, Ms. Yoo is a sought-after expert on police violence, the treatment of prisoners, and the role of drug treatment, incarceration alternatives, and reintegration services for people leaving prison. In her role with NPAP coordinating nationwide appeals against officers, she is also an expert in the role of qualified immunity, which shields police from monetary damages.  Ms. Yoo is the recipient of the 2016 American Constitution Society’s Roberto Alvarez award and the 2020 Consumer Attorneys of California’s Robert E. Cartwright award.

Originally from Seoul, South Korea, Ms. Yoo is a cum laude graduate of Wellesley College and received her J.D. at the University of Colorado School of Law.

Raised in Lakeview, Long Island, Fred Brewington is a respected lawyer and community advocate with a distinguished legal career. After working at a number of prestigious firms and law offices, including a clerkship at the Office of the Legal Counsel of the United States Senate, Fred Brewington began a private practice on Long Island. With his expertise in civil rights litigation, Fred has successfully challenged the ‘at large’ voting system in the Town of Hempstead and worked on preventing future unconstitutional and discriminatory purging of voters from the voting role.

Frances Crocket Carpenter is a civil rights attorney based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Frances has spent her career helping those who have suffered at the hands of police injustice and brutality as well as incarcerated individuals who have had their rights violated while in the care and custody of jails and prisons. One notable case includes Lundstorm v. Romero. 616 F. 3d 1108. 1123 (10th Cir. 2010) in which the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals held that the law enforcement officers violated Plaintiffs' Constitutional rights and were not entitled to Qualified Immunity.

Erin Russ Scherzer is Executive Director of Neufeld Scheck & Brustin, LLP.  She is responsible for the firm's operations, recruiting, and human resources.  Prior to joining NSB, Erin worked as the Executive Director of the Office of Career Services at Seton Hall University School of Law.  Erin began her legal career as a Business Law Associate in the New York office of Goodwin Procter LLP, where she represented private equity funds and lenders and provided pro bono legal assistance to individuals and non-profit organizations.

Erin serves as Co-Chair of the Maplewood Community Board on Police (MCBoP), which is the first civilian police board in a New Jersey suburban municipality.  Erin was one of the community leaders who advocated for the creation of a civilian police board and then worked together with municipal officials to research and develop the actual board.  Some of Erin's contributions to the MCBoP includes developing the operational foundation of the board, regularly reviewing Use of Force incidents, and advocating to create a social worker role to address behavioral health calls instead of law enforcement.

Board of Directors

J. Ashlee Albies has been practicing civil rights and employee-side employment law for almost 20 years. She has devoted her legal career to advocating for clients who have been harmed by discrimination, retaliation, or unfair treatment by an employer or by the government. Ashlee has a long history of civil rights advocacy — working to use the legal system and her legal knowledge to advance human rights. She has provided legal support to many mass demonstrations in Portland and nationally, and represents community groups and individuals seeking to hold police accountable. She also helped organize legal seminars for prisoners and the Life Without Parole Storytelling Project at Oregon State Penitentiary in 2019. She regularly offers community education and continuing legal education seminars on the First Amendment, free speech, creative uses of the law, trial advocacy, and civil rights litigation.

Breanta “Bre” Boss is a graduate of SMU Dedman School of Law. Bre received her M.A. and B.A. from Texas State University where she majored in Political Science. Bre is driven by a strong commitment to public service as she has interned for Legal Assistance for Survivors of Sexual Assault, the Dallas Public Defender Office, Deason Criminal Justice Reform Center, Rockwall County District Attorney Office, and W.W. Caruth Jr. Child Advocacy Center. In law school, she served as Chief of the Judge Elmo B. Hunter Legal Center for Victims of Crime Against Women Clinic, Director of Programming for the Criminal Law Society, student member of the Dean’s Diversity Council, Intercultural Liaison for the Black Law Student Association, and Co-Director of the Dallas Kids Project. As an advocate, Bre received awards in the Southern Classic Mock Trial Competition, SMU Fall Mock Trial Competition, and Jackson Walker Moot Court Competition. Additionally, she became a member of the State Bar of Texas Law Student Pro Bono College after the completion of more than 200 hours of public service.

Bre is licensed in the 5th, 8th, and 10th Courts of Appeals as well as the states of Texas, Missouri, Colorado, and Arkansas. Bre's legal publications include "DEI in the Legal Profession: Identifying the Foundational Factors for Meaningful Change," which was published in the Utah Law Review as well as "The Implications of COVID-19 for Incarcerated Individuals Seeking Legal Redress," which was published in the Federal Lawyer. Bre’s proudest achievement is being a first-generation college student. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her brother who has severe autism, and catching up on crime and house hunting shows.

John L. Burris is best known for his work in the area of Plaintiff’s Civil Rights. For over 30 years the Law Offices of John L. Burris has represented plaintiffs in high-profile civil rights cases including Rodney King, rapper Tupac Shakur, and Oscar Grant who was killed by a BART police officer (The award-winning film “Fruitvale Station” is based on Oscar Grant). He is a founding Board member of the National Lawyers Guild’s National Police Accountability Project (NPAP) and a Board member of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights-San Francisco.

Christian Contreras is an attorney, civil rights activists, and community advocate.

Mr. Contreras has a robust law practice in the areas of civil rights, personal injury, trials and criminal defense. Mr. Contreras litigates a broad range of cases primarily focused on wrongful death cases and civil rights cases affecting constitutional rights. On average, Mr. Contreras takes at least seven (7) cases to trial per year. Mr. Contreras has also successfully prevailed at the Ninth Circuit of Appeals. Mr. Contreras is the principal of the Law Offices of Christian Contreras, PLC which is a multi-attorney firm.

Mr. Contreras currently serves on the board of directors for the following non-profit organizations: East Los Angeles College Foundation, Protesters Defense Alliance, Mexican American Bar Association, Peoples College of Law, and Los Angeles Trial Lawyers’ Charities Mr. Contreras also serves as the legal advisor for the League of United Latin American Citizens.

Finally, Mr. Contreras also teaches civil rights at the law school, Peoples College of Law.

Hugh Eastwood has won significant verdicts and settlements for victims of government misconduct, for whistleblowers, and for those harmed by breach of trust or contract.  Representative civil rights experience includes: the Eighth Circuit affirming a Monell verdict against a local government for sexual abuse in a drug court program; the City of St. Louis reforming its SWAT policy as part of a consent judgment; a rare denial of judicial immunity for a state court judge; winning three Missouri Supreme Court cases in one day involving due process challenges to municipal court traffic enforcement practices; a policy-limits settlement for a wrongful murder conviction; and a judgment for injunctive relief, damages and attorney’s fees in favor of a homeless panhandler.  Hugh’s work includes free speech, search and seizure, and due process claims.  He is particularly interested in insurance issues around civil rights tort claims, and has published on that topic.

Hugh received his B.A. and J.D. from Yale.  Before law school, he managed the site design competition for the rebuilding of the World Trade Center at Ground Zero.  Hugh has served on the boards of several nonprofits, and has been appointed to committees at his local federal district court.

Denisse O. Gastélum is the founder and principal trial attorney at Gastélum Law, APC, where her practice focuses primarily on civil rights/police misconduct and sexual assault, representing plaintiffs in state and federal courts throughout the State of California. Denisse was born in East Los Angeles into an immigrant family from Chihuahua and Sinaloa, México. Having come from humble beginnings, her commitment to advocating and protecting civil liberties comes naturally. 

Denisse completed her undergraduate studies at UCLA, where she majored in Psychology and minored in Political Science and Education. She then embarked upon her legal studies at Loyola Law School, where she served as a mentor for the Academic Support Program, a debate coach for the Johnnie Cochran Middle School Debate Program, a member of the review team for For People of Color, Inc., and a law clerk for The Cochran Firm. 

During the early years of her legal career, Denisse worked as a defense attorney, where she specialized in public entity defense. This experience provides her with the unique ability to analyze a case from both a defense and plaintiff’s perspective. This skill has proven to be a reliable tool which has sharpened Denisse’s effectiveness in litigation and in the courtroom.

Denisse is a Past President of the Mexican American Bar Association (MABA) and the Latina Lawyers Bar Association (LLBA).  She is the current President of the California La Raza Lawyers Association (CLRLA), and currently sits on the Board of Directors for the National Police Accountability Project (NPAP), the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California (ACLU SoCal), the Consumer Attorneys of California (CAOC), and the Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles (CAALA). She is actively involved in police reform through her work with the NPAP Bane Act Reform Committee, the CAOC Civil Rights and Police Reform Committee, and the MABA Civil Rights Committee. 

Over the years, Denisse has been a speaker on various panels regarding the practice of law and has received numerous accolades, including the MABF Distinguished Alumna Speaker, the CAALA Presidential Award (two-time recipient), and the LACBA Hispanic Heritage Honoree.   In 2021, Denisse was recognized by the Hispanic National Bar Association (HNBA) as a Top Lawyers Under 40 Award recipient. This Award honors lawyers who have demonstrated professional excellence, integrity, leadership, commitment to the Hispanic community, and dedication to improving the legal profession. In 2020, Denisse was recognized as being Top 40 Under 40 and Top 100 Civil Plaintiffs’ Trial Lawyers by the National Trial Lawyers, a recognition that is extended solely to the select few of the most qualified attorneys from each state who demonstrate superior qualifications of leadership, reputation, influence, stature and public profile. 

When not fighting for justice and serving as a zealous advocate on behalf of her clients, Denisse enjoys traveling, volunteering and spending time with her husband, Isidro Pánuco, and their two Australian Shepherds, Ginsberg (“Ginsey”) and Barack (“Barry”).

Professor Ravenell joined Villanova Law School in 2006 and began serving as Associate Dean for Faculty Research and Development in June of 2019.  She teaches Civil Procedure, Criminal Procedure, Civil Rights Litigation, and Police Conduct. Professor Ravenell's scholarship focuses on § 1983, the federal civil remedy for constitutional deprivations, and examines the points at which § 1983 jurisprudence converges with other areas of the law. She is an expert on qualified immunity, municipal liability, and federal civil rights litigation against police officials. In 2020 she contributed to the American Constitution Society’s What’s the Big Idea? project, a collection of essays by leading scholars in the legal field recommending policy changes to incoming federal and state administrations. Her scholarship has appeared or is forthcoming in Temple Law Review, North Carolina Review, Texas Law Review and other leading journals.

Professor Ravenell received her B.A. from the University of Virginia and her J.D. from Columbia University School of Law.  While at Columbia, she was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar. Following law school, Professor Ravenell was an associate with Wilmer, Cutler, & Pickering in Washington D.C. and clerked for the Honorable Raymond A. Jackson of the United Stated District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia before joining the College of William and Mary law faculty as a Visiting Assistant Professor.

Paul Wright is the editor and co-founder of Prison Legal News, the longest publishing independent prisoner rights magazine in US history. He is also the former National Lawyers Guild Jailhouse Lawyer national co-vice president (1995-2008). Paul was imprisoned for 17 years in Washington State until his release from prison in 2003. During and since his incarceration, he has successfully litigated a wide variety of censorship and public records issues against prison systems around the country both pro se, as a plaintiff, on behalf of other prisoners and on behalf of Prison Legal News.

Advisory Board

Karen Blum is a Professor Emerita and Research Professor of Law at Suffolk University Law  School where she taught for forty-three years in the areas of Federal Courts, Police Misconduct  Litigation, and Civil Procedure. She received her B.A. from Wells College, a J.D. from Suffolk  University Law School, and an LL. M. from Harvard Law School. Professor Blum has been a  regular faculty participant in Section 1983 Civil Rights Programs and Institutes throughout the  United States. Since 1990, she has served as a faculty member for workshops sponsored by the  Federal Judicial Center for Federal District Court and Federal Magistrate Judges. She has  authored numerous articles in the Section 1983 area, including a piece entitled Qualified  Immunity: Time to Change the Message, 93 Notre Dame L. Rev. 1887 (2018). She is co-author,  along with Michael Avery, David Rudovsky, and Jennifer Laurin of the treatise POLICE  MISCONDUCT: LAW AND LITIGATION.

 

Erwin Chemerinsky became the 13th Dean of Berkeley Law on July 1, 2017, when he joined the faculty as the Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law.

Prior to assuming this position, from 2008-2017, he was the founding Dean and Distinguished Professor of Law, and Raymond Pryke Professor of First Amendment Law, at University of California, Irvine School of Law, with a joint appointment in Political Science.  Before that he was the Alston and Bird Professor of Law and Political Science at Duke University from 2004-2008, and from 1983-2004 was a professor at the University of Southern California Law School, including as the Sydney M. Irmas Professor of Public Interest Law, Legal Ethics, and Political Science. He also has taught at DePaul College of Law and UCLA Law School.

He is the author of twelve books, including leading casebooks and treatises about constitutional law, criminal procedure, and federal jurisdiction.  His most recent books are The Religion Clauses:  The Case for Separating Church and State (with Howard Gillman) (Oxford University Press 2020), and We the People:  A Progressive Reading of the Constitution for the Twenty-First Century (Picador Macmillan 2018).

He also is the author of more than 250 law review articles. He is a contributing writer for the Opinion section of the Los Angeles Times, and writes regular columns for the Sacramento Bee, the ABA Journal and the Daily Journal, and frequent op-eds in newspapers across the country. He frequently argues appellate cases, including in the United States Supreme Court.

In 2016, he was named a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.  In 2017, National Jurist magazine again named Dean Chemerinsky as the most influential person in legal education in the United States.

David graduated from the American University Washington College of Law in 1970 where he was the first president of the law school's National Lawyers Guild (NLG) chapter. He worked for one year with the Lawyers Guild's Military Law Office in Japan and Okinawa. Upon return to the United States, he helped found the NLG Military Law Task Force. For the past twenty-five years, Gespass has maintained a general practice in Birmingham, Alabama. He is the past president of the National Lawyers Guild and has previously served as the NLG southern regional vice-president. He also served for four years on the editorial board of the Guild Practitioner, the Guild's theoretical journal, from 2004 to 2009 in the position of editor-in-chief. He has been a member of the NPAP Advisory Board since its founding in 1999.

Terry, of the firm Friedman & Gilbert, has been in private law practice since 1973, specializing in criminal defense and civil rights litigation. In the 1970's, he represented American Indians in the aftermath of the Wounded Knee confrontation in South Dakota, and numerous anti-war and civil rights activists. Over the years, Gilbert has handled a variety of government misconduct cases involving police abuse, violations of free speech, prisoners’ rights, and victims of all forms of discrimination.

Catherine (“Kate”) Kowalewski is a Senior Manager at CBIZ Brinig Taylor Zimmer (“CBIZ”), where she is an expert in financial and economic damages analysis, fraud investigations and litigation support.  She is a Certified Public Accountant and a member of the State Bar of California.  In addition, she is a Certified Fraud Examiner and has been awarded the Certified in Financial Forensics Credential by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

Prior to joining BTZ, Kate was a partner at Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP, the nation’s largest plaintiff’s side class action firm.  Leveraging her unique background as a securities attorney, forensic accountant and fraud investigator, she investigated hundreds of potential fraud claims and played a key role in the litigation of highly complex accounting scandals within some of America's largest corporations.

Ms. Kowalewski earned her Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Accounting from Ohio University in 1994 and her Masters degree in Business Administration from Limburgs Universitair Centrum (currently known as Hasselt University) in Diepenbeek, Belgium in 1995. She earned her Juris Doctor degree from the University of San Diego in 2001, where she served as Lead Articles Editor of the San Diego Law Review.

Jonathan is a partner in the law firm of Beldock, Levine & Hoffman, LLP. His area of practice is civil rights with a focus on police and governmental misconduct, employment discrimination, First Amendment advocacy and international human rights. He has successfully litigated significant cases both on behalf of individuals and as class counsel in cases involving systemic misconduct in police departments in New York and throughout the country. He practices in both federal and state courts, at both the trial and appellate levels. Moore has served as an adjunct professor of law at CUNY School of Law in New York, teaching a course on government misconduct. He has also lectured on excessive force litigation for the Practising Law Institute. Since 1973, Moore has been a member of the National Lawyers Guild. He was a Founding Editor of the Police Misconduct and Civil Rights Law Report and has contributed articles to that publication as well as the Civil Rights Litigation and Attorneys Fees Annual Handbook. To learn more, see www.blhny.com.

David Rudovsky is a founding partner in the Philadelphia law firm of Kairys, Rudovsky, Messing, & Feinberg LLP. He specializes in civil rights, civil liberties, and criminal defense litigation. Since 1987, he has been a Senior Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Law School where he teaches courses in Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, Evidence, and Civil Rights. Rudovsky has argued two civil liberties cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, Forsyth v. Mitchell (government wiretapping) and City of Canton v. Harris (municipal liability of failure to properly train police). He has written several books regarding criminal procedure and civil liberties: Police Misconduct: Law and Litigation; The Law of Arrest, Search and Seizure in Pennsylvania; Criminal Law in Pennsylvania; Law and Commentary; and The Rights of Prisoners. He has also published scholarly articles on government immunity, racial profiling, and the criminal justice system. In 1986, Rudovsky received a MacArthur Fellowship for work in criminal justice and civil liberties. To learn more, see www.krlawphila.com.

Joanna Schwartz is a graduate of Brown University and Yale Law School.  She is Assistant Professor of Law at the UCLA School of Law.  Before joining the faculty at UCLA, Schwartz clerked for Judge Denise Cote of the Southern District of New York and Judge Harry Pregerson of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. She was then associated with Emery Celli Brinckerhoff & Abady LLP, in New York City, where she specialized in police misconduct, prisoners’ rights, and First Amendment litigation. Schwartz’s research focuses on the role of lawsuits in organizational decision making, with a focus on law enforcement agencies.

Flint Taylor is a graduate of Brown University and Northwestern Law School. He is a longtime National Lawyers Guild member and a founding partner of the People's Law Office in Chicago, an office which has been dedicated to litigating civil rights, police violence, and government misconduct cases for thirty years. Among the landmark cases that Taylor has litigated are the Fred Hampton Black Panther case; the Greensboro, North Carolina case against the Ku Klux Klan and Nazis; the Ford Heights Four case in which four innocent men received a record $36 million settlement for their wrongful conviction and imprisonment; and a series of cases arising from torture by Chicago police officials. Taylor successfully argued the cases of Cleavinger v. Saxner and Buckley v. Fitzsimmons before the United States Supreme Court. He is presently counsel for a seven year-old boy who was falsely accused of murder by the Chicago Police; death row inmate Aaron Patterson, who was convicted on the basis of a false confession which was tortured from him; and former death row inmate Ronald Jones. Taylor is also a founding editor of the Police Misconduct and Civil Rights Law Reporter. To learn more, see www.peopleslawoffice.com.

Past Presidents

Howard Friedman has a private practice in Boston, Massachusetts. His practice emphasizes plaintiff’s civil rights litigation, particularly claims alleging police misconduct, police brutality, false arrest, wrongful conviction, inhumane treatment of prisoners, and the right to record police officers. Mr. Friedman is a frequent lecturer on police misconduct and civil rights issues. He is the author or co-author of numerous articles on these issues including a chapter on intentional torts for “ATLA’s Litigating Tort Cases,” published by Thomson West. He has also represented plaintiffs in several class actions alleging unconstitutional strip searches at jails or police stations.

Michael Haddad is an AV-Preeminent rated attorney and a partner in Haddad & Sherwin, in Oakland, California. The majority of Mr. Haddad’s practice is to represent plaintiffs in police misconduct and other civil rights litigation, including wrongful death, police shootings, excessive force, jail deaths, and municipal liability. Where possible, Mr. Haddad and his firm also obtain voluntary or court-ordered injunctive relief to improve police department policies and procedures.

John Burton graduated from UCLA in 1976 with a degree in Anthropology. He completed Hastings College of the Law with his juris doctor in December 1978. Admitted to the State Bar of California in May 1979, Mr. Burton has concentrated on litigation involving the public interest and civil rights in both state and federal trial and appellate courts. He opened his own practice in May 1984, focusing primarily on representing plaintiffs in police misconduct actions. He was also an adjunct professor of Torts at the University of West Los Angeles School of Law from 1981 through 1989. In 1989, he earned an A-V rating from Martindale-Hubbell, placing him in the top ten percent of lawyers nationally, an exceptional achievement for a solo practitioner specializing in plaintiffs’ civil rights actions.

With attorney Peter M. Williamson, Mr. Burton has the only plaintiffs’ products-liability verdicts to date against TASER International, Inc., for deaths caused by Electrical Control Devices (ECDs). Mr. Burton is featured prominently in the documentary on TASER International, Killing Them Safely. Mr. Burton has been profiled in Los Angeles Magazine and The Los Angeles Times, and quoted on numerous occasions in theNew York Times and local newspapers, particularly The Los Angeles Daily Journal. He appears periodically on national and local television as an authority on issues relating to civil rights litigation and the use of ECDs. His work on ECD cases has involved representing plaintiffs throughout California, and in other states including Nevada, Missouri, Michigan, Ohio, and North Carolina. John has been recognized as a Southern California “Superlawyer” since 2009.

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