Bio
Jeffery Robinson is the executive director of The Who We Are Project. Until April 2021, Robinson was an ACLU deputy legal director and the director of the ACLU Trone Center for Justice and Equality, which houses the organization’s work on criminal justice, racial justice, and reform issues. Since graduating from Harvard Law School in 1981, Jeff has three decades of experience working on these issues. For seven years, he represented indigent clients in state court at The Defender Association and then in federal court at the Federal Public Defender’s Office, both in Seattle. In 1988, Jeff began a 27-year private practice at the Seattle firm of Schroeter, Goldmark & Bender, where he represented a broad range of clients in local, state, and federal courts on charges ranging from shoplifting to securities fraud and first degree murder. He has tried over 200 criminal cases to verdict and has tried more than a dozen civil cases representing plaintiffs suing corporate and government entities. Jeff was one of the original members of the John Adams Project and worked on the behalf of one of five men held at Guantanamo Bay charged with carrying out the 9/11 attacks.
In addition to being a nationally recognized trial attorney, Jeff is also a respected teacher of trial advocacy. He is a faculty member of the National Criminal Defense College in Macon, Georgia, and has lectured on trial skills all over the United States. He has also spoken nationally to diverse audiences on the role of race in the criminal justice system. He is past president of the Washington Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and a life member and past member of the board of directors of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. Jeff is also an elected fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers.
Featured work
May 3, 2019
The Racist Roots of Denying Incarcerated People Their Right to Vote
![Voting Sign on Chair](https://assets.aclu.org/live/uploads/2019/09/web18-votingsignonchair-1160x768-400x400.jpg)
Jan 23, 2019
Judges Prove Laquan McDonald’s Life Didn’t Matter Very Much to the System
![The Rev. Marvin Hunter, Laquan McDonald's great-uncle, speaks with reporters at the Leighton Criminal Court Building in Chicago on Friday, Jan. 18, 2019, after the sentencing of former Chicago officer Jason Van Dyke for the 2014 shooting of McDonald.](https://assets.aclu.org/live/uploads/2019/09/web19-marvin-hunter-1160x768-400x400.jpg)
Jan 17, 2019
Steve King Isn’t the Only Elected Official Pursuing a White Supremacist Vision for America
![Steve King](https://assets.aclu.org/live/uploads/2019/09/web18-steveking-1160x768-400x400.jpg)
Oct 17, 2018
A Confederate Portrait, Racial Bias, and the Death Penalty in Virginia
![Robert Lee](https://assets.aclu.org/live/uploads/2019/09/web18-robertlee-1160x768-400x400.jpg)
Oct 16, 2018
The Spirit of 1968 Lives on Today in Athletes like Colin Kaepernick
![Tommie Smith and John Carlos demonstrating at the Mexico City Olympics 1968](https://assets.aclu.org/live/uploads/2019/09/web18-olympicsblackpowerfists-1160x768-400x400.jpg)
Aug 9, 2018
Memphis Police Surveillance of Activists Is a Betrayal and a Reminder
![Black Lives Matter Protest](https://assets.aclu.org/live/uploads/2019/09/web17-blacklivesmatterprotest-1160x768-400x400.jpg)
Jul 16, 2018
Black Lives Matter Is Still Here — And Avoiding the Mistakes of Their Predecessors
![Speaker at Black Lives Matter Protest](https://assets.aclu.org/live/uploads/2019/09/web18-blacklivesmatterprotest-1160x768-400x400.jpg)
Jul 6, 2018
America Was in the Business of Separating Families Long Before Trump
![A young child of Japanese ancestry evacuates by train to internment](https://assets.aclu.org/live/uploads/2019/09/web18_japaneseinternmentchild_1160x768-400x400.jpg)
May 24, 2018
The NFL’s ‘Anthem Policy’ Is Pure Hypocrisy
![NFL Kneeling Protest](https://assets.aclu.org/live/uploads/2019/09/web17-nflkneelingprotest-1160x768-400x400.jpg)
May 22, 2018
Jeff Sessions Wants Police to Use Stop and Frisk Without Reasonable Suspicion
![Police Stop](https://assets.aclu.org/live/uploads/2019/09/web17-policestop-1160x768-400x400.jpg)