Jude Pond began a two-year tenure as LCCR’s Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Fellow in September 2016. Awarded to an attorney who has practiced for a minimum of two years and has demonstrated a commitment to civil rights, the fellowship is designed to enhance the fellow’s understanding of civil rights law and prepare the fellow for a career promoting social justice.

With a focus on LCCR’s core commitment to advancing racial justice, Jude engages in litigation and advocates for policies that address the systemic inequalities that affect communities of color. Jude also represents clients through LCCR’s Second Chance Legal Clinic. These clients are eligible to reduce or dismiss previous criminal convictions, which can present obstacles to employment, education, housing, public benefits, and other opportunities that enable clients to contribute to the economic and civil lives of their communities.

A 2014 graduate of Georgetown University Law Center, Jude brings to the fellowship a solid background in and passion for promoting justice. As an attorney advisor with the U.S. Department of Justice Executive Office for Immigration Review, Jude updated the judges at the San Francisco Immigration Court on current case law and prepared in-depth written materials for monthly training sessions on complex areas of immigration law. Jude also helped to draft decisions on a number of issues, including eligibility for relief from removal and the effects of state criminal convictions in immigration proceedings—a highly technical, yet unsettled, area of law.

During law school, Jude worked at the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division Special Litigation Section assessing complaints about conditions of confinement and researching the Department’s ability to use Title IV of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to address the unconstitutionality of racially disparate arrest and probation practices in Meridian, Mississippi. Additionally, while interning at the Southern Center for Human Rights, Jude interviewed detainees about jail conditions, advocated for an inmate before the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles, researched the existence and effects of debtors’ prisons, and drafted model legislation regarding treatment of prisoners with intellectual disabilities.

Jude is currently applying these advanced analytical skills to documenting California municipal traffic courts’ ability to pay policies and adverse outcomes for people who cannot afford to pay traffic fines and fees. Separately, Jude is collaborating with partner organizations to investigate racially discriminatory stop-and-frisk policing practices in the Bay Area.

Prior to law school, Jude worked with several nonprofit organizations that defend incarcerated people’s rights to libraries and educational materials, nutritious meals, and safe living conditions. In addition, as an undergraduate student at Stanford University, Jude tutored individuals in jail through the Stanford Beyond Bars program.