News & Commentary written by Amreeta Mathai

Amreeta Mathai was a Staff Attorney with the ACLU’s Racial Justice Program, where she specialized in Debtors’ Prison and Indigent Defense work. Prior to joining the ACLU, Amreeta was a Team Leader and staff attorney at the Bronx Defenders where she managed an interdisciplinary, holistic team of advocates in criminal, civil, family and immigration defense. As a civil attorney on an interdisciplinary defense team, she directly represented clients in a variety legal proceedings stemming from interactions with the criminal justice system including sealed records issues in criminal court and at the NY appellate division, eviction proceedings, civil forfeiture proceedings, employment hearings, and public benefits hearings. Amreeta also served as a Lecturer-in-Law in the clinical program at Columbia Law School where she lectured on holistic public defense.

After graduating from law school, Amreeta clerked for the Honorable Ivan L.R. Lemelle in the Eastern District of Louisiana. While in law school, Amreeta participated in the Predatory Lending Prevention/Consumer Protection Clinic in Jamaica Plains, Boston, the Harvard Human Rights Clinic, and interned with plaintiff side employment firm Vladeck, Raskin & Clark, P.C as well as the ACLU’s National Security Program. Amreeta received her J.D. from Harvard Law School, her M.Phil. in Development Studies from the University of Oxford and her B.A. in History from the University of Chicago.