Nancy Hollander (born 1944) is an American criminal defense lawyer best known for representing two Guantanamo Bay detainees, as well as

Chelsea Manning Chelsea Elizabeth Manning (born Bradley Edward Manning; December 17, 1987) is an American activist and whistleblower. She is a former United States Army soldier who was convicted by court-martial in July 2013 of violations of the Espionage A ...

. She was portrayed by actress

Jodie Foster Alicia Christian "Jodie" Foster (born November 19, 1962) is an American actress and filmmaker. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, three British Academy Film Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and the hono ...

in the 2021 film ''

The Mauritanian ''The Mauritanian'' is a 2021 legal drama film based on the memoir of Mohamedou Ould Slahi, a Mauritanian man who was held for fourteen years (from 2002 to 2016) without charge in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, a United States military pri ...

'', about the case of her client Mohamedou Ould Slahi.

Early life and education

Hollander was raised in

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

. She received a Bachelor of Arts from the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

and a Juris Doctor from the

University of New Mexico School of Law The University of New Mexico School of Law (UNM Law or New Mexico Law) is the law school of the University of New Mexico, a public research university in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Founded in 1947, it is the first and only law school in the state. ...

. As a student, Hollander was arrested three times while protesting as a member of

Students for a Democratic Society Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) was a national student activist organization in the United States during the 1960s, and was one of the principal representations of the New Left. Disdaining permanent leaders, hierarchical relationships ...

Career

Hollander represented Slahi until 2016, when he was released from the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. The film ''The Mauritanian'' is based on the story of Slahi's capture, torture, and detention, and Hollander's fight to win his release. Hollander also represents

Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri Abd al-Rahim Hussein Muhammed Abdu al-Nashiri (; ar, عبد الرحيم حسين محمد عبده النشري; born January 5, 1965) is a Saudi Arabian citizen alleged to be the mastermind of the bombing of USS ''Cole'' and other maritime ...

, the alleged mastermind of the USS ''Cole'' bombing, who was tortured at CIA black sites and has been at Guantanamo Bay since 2006. Hollander won two judgments for al-Nashiri from the

European Court of Human Rights The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR or ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights. The court hears applications alleging that ...

, resulting in damages to al-Nashiri. Hollander was lead counsel for Chelsea Manning's unsuccessful military appeal, but filed a successful application for commutation of Manning's sentence in 2017. Hollander has been a partner at Freedman Boyd Hollander Goldberg Urias & Ward, P.A., in Albuquerque, New Mexico, since 1983.

Personal life

Hollander was married to

Todd Gitlin Todd Alan Gitlin (January 6, 1943 – February 5, 2022) was an American sociologist, political activist and writer, novelist, and cultural commentator. He wrote about the mass media, politics, intellectual life and the arts, for both popular an ...

, an activist and academic associated with the New Left movement. With him, she co-wrote ''Uptown: Poor Whites in Chicago.''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hollander, Nancy Living people Place of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American lawyers Criminal defense lawyers University of Michigan alumni University of New Mexico School of Law alumni New Mexico lawyers 21st-century American women lawyers 1944 births Lawyers from Dallas