May 26, 2009 By: yunews
May 26, 2009 -- When JD graduate Alison Brill started her studies at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, she already had more real-world experience with the criminal justice system than many attorneys.
As an anthropology undergraduate at Cornell University, Brill taught a literature class in an adult maximum-security prison. The experience inspired her to 鈥渟top studying systemic injustice and actually work to change it,鈥 she said.
After graduating, she worked with men and women re-entering society from prison and then took the next step: a legal education leading to a career as a criminal defense attorney.
Throughout her undergraduate and graduate years, Brill built a head-turning resume that helped her land a one-year clerkship with New Jersey Supreme Court Justice Barry T. Albin, starting in September 2009.
At Cardozo, she co-founded the Criminal Justice Society, Prisoners鈥 Rights Advocacy and Incarcerated Mothers Law Project. She participated in the Intensive Trial Advocacy Program and a January 2008 study-abroad seminar in Rwanda and Tanzania on 鈥淛ustice and Reconciliation in Post-Conflict Rwanda.鈥
But a few Cardozo activities in particular had personal significance, said the native of New York City. During the 2008 presidential elections, she joined a group of 40 Cardozo students in Ohio who monitored the polls.
鈥淒uring this long day, speaking with local voters and witnessing the complications of ensuring adequate procedures to protect the right to vote, I felt the awesome responsibility of being a lawyer in this society,鈥 Brill said.
As an intern at Cardozo鈥檚 Criminal Defense and Innocence Project legal clinics, she helped perform significant legal work on pre-trial misdemeanor and post-conviction felony cases. Representing clients in need alongside other committed advocates 鈥渋s the reason I came to law school and why I want to be a lawyer.鈥
