Jill Soffiyah Elijah is an American lawyer, author and social justice activist.

Education

Elijah holds a

Bachelor of Arts degree Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

from

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

and a

Juris Doctor degree The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...

from the

Wayne State University Law School Wayne State University Law School (Wayne Law) is the law school of Wayne State University in Detroit. Wayne Law is located in Midtown, Detroit's Cultural Center. Founded in 1927, the law school offers juris doctor (J.D.), master of laws (LL.M.), ...

in Detroit, Michigan.

Career

Following law school, she worked as a supervising attorney at the Neighborhood Defender Service in Harlem, New York, and in the juvenile rights division of the New York Legal Aide Society. Beginning in 1992, she taught in the defender clinic at CUNY law school. She was a clinical faculty member and the director of the Criminal Justice Institute at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

. Elijah was the first black director of the Correctional Association of New York, a position she held for five years. At the Correctional Association, she worked with the

Marshall Project The Marshall Project is a nonprofit, online journalism organization focusing on issues related to criminal justice in the United States. It was founded by former hedge fund manager Neil Barsky with former ''New York Times'' executive editor Bil ...

to prosecute several guards

Attica Prison Attica Correctional Facility is a maximum security campus New York State prison in the Town of Attica, New York, operated by the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision. It was constructed in the 1930s in response to ...

for brutality against inmates. In 2016 she founded the '' Alliance of Families for Justice'', an American organization that advocates for those with family members in prison. As a lawyer she has represented

Marilyn Buck Marilyn Jean Buck (December 13, 1947 – August 3, 2010) was an American Marxist and feminist poet who was imprisoned for her participation in the 1979 prison escape of Assata Shakur, the 1981 Brink's robbery and the 1983 U.S. Senate bombi ...

and

Sundiata Acoli Sundiata Acoli (born January 14, 1937,"Who is Sundiata Acoli?"
SundiataAcoli.org. as Clark Edward Squire) is an ...

in court. In 2018 she was honored with the Spirit of John Brown Freedom Award. As an author she has written opinion pieces for the

New York Daily News The New York ''Daily News'', officially titled the ''Daily News'', is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, NJ. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in ta ...

, The Hill,

Democracy Now! ''Democracy Now!'' is an hour-long American TV, radio, and Internet news program hosted by journalists Amy Goodman (who also acts as the show's executive producer), Juan González, and Nermeen Shaikh. The show, which airs live each weekday at ...

, and the

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Elijah, Soffiyah Living people American women lawyers Harvard University faculty City University of New York faculty Cornell University alumni Wayne State University Law School alumni African-American activists Date of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) Year of birth missing (living people)