Jennifer Friedman is an activist, advocate, and lawyer with over twenty-five years of experience in the movement to end gender-based violence. She is currently the Director of Family Law and Policy for Sanctuary for Families’ practices in the Bronx and Manhattan Family Justice Centers. Previously, when Friedman graduated from law school with an Equal Justice Works public interest fellowship, she created, and for ten years directed, the Courtroom Advocates Project (CAP) at Sanctuary, which remains one of the largest and most successful pro bono domestic violence programs in the country. From 2008-2018, Friedman spent a decade dedicated to social justice law in Westchester County. In 2008, she joined Pace Law School, first serving as the founding Director of the Public Interest Law Center, where she created and managed pro bono and public interest career development programs for law students, and then as the founding Executive Director of the Pace Community Law Practice (PCLP), an innovative legal services center dedicated to representing low and moderate-income immigrants, and training recent law graduates for legal practice. Then, Friedman joined My Sisters’ Place, as the Managing Director of the Center for Legal Services. Ms. Friedman is a graduate of Columbia College and Columbia Law School, where she was a Kent and Stone Scholar. Ms. Friedman recently served on the Governor’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Forensic Evaluations and is the recipient of many honors and awards, including the New York City Bar Association’s Katherine McDonald Award for Service to the Family Courts, and the Columbia Alumna Association’s Alumna Achievement Award.
Director, Bronx and Manhattan Legal Project & Policy, Sanctuary for Families