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Our clinic staff consists of two faculty members,
eight fellows, an investigations supervisor, an executive
assistant, and a receptionist.
John M. Copacino
Professor Copacino is Director
of the Criminal Justice Clinic and the E. Barrett
Prettyman graduate program in criminal trial practice.
Prior to joining the Georgetown faculty, he was the
Director of the Juvenile Law Clinic at the Antioch
School of Law. He is a graduate of the University
of Virginia Law School and received an LL.M. from
the Law Center. He serves as trial counsel in numerous
criminal and post-conviction cases. In 1997, he received
the Law Center's Flegal Award for outstanding teaching.
He is active in local criminal justice organizations.
Abbe Smith
Professor Abbe Smith is Director of the Criminal Justice Clinic
and the E. Barrett Prettyman Fellowship program. She came to Georgetown in 1996, after serving as the Deputy Director of the Criminal Justice Institute at Harvard Law School, where she was also a Clinical Instructor and Lecturer on Law. In addition to Georgetown and Harvard, Professor Smith has taught at City University New York Law School, Temple University School of Law, American University Washington College of Law, and the University of Melbourne Law School, where she was a Senior Fulbright Scholar. Professor Smith teaches and writes in the areas of criminal defense, legal ethics, juvenile justice, and clinical legal education. In addition to articles in law journals, she is the author of Case of a Lifetime: A Criminal Defense Lawyer’s Story (Palgrave MacMillan 2008), co-author of Understanding Lawyers’ Ethics (Lexis-Nexis 2004), and a contributing author of We Dissent (Michael Avery, ed., NYU Press, 2009) and Law Stories (Gary Bellow & Martha Minow, eds., University of Michigan Press, 1996). Prior to becoming a law teacher, Professor Smith was a public defender in Philadelphia. She continues to be actively engaged in criminal defense practice and frequently presents at public defender and legal aid training programs in the US and abroad. Professor Smith is on the Board of Directors of the National Juvenile Defender Center and the Bronx Defenders. She is a longtime member of the National Lawyers Guild and American Civil Liberties Union. She is also a published cartoonist.
Lindsay Dressler
Lindsay is the Investigations Supervisor and Director of the Investigative Internship Program. Lindsay received two B.A. degrees from the University of Maryland, College Park. She is currently working on her Juris Doctor degree at the Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law. Prior to joining the clinic staff, Lindsay spent two and a half years working in the national security sector, conducting background investigations for the United States Office of Personnel Management. Lindsay also has several years of experience working as a professional investigator for defense attorneys in Maryland and D.C. She is an alumnus of the Investigative Internship Program.
Teruko Richardson
Teruko Richardson is the Executive Assistant for the Criminal
Justice Clinic. She handles all administrative matters necessary
to ensure an efficient work flow. Prior to joining our staff
in March, 1982, Teruko worked with the Law Offices of Mitchell,
Shorter & Gartrell.
Tara Curtis
Tara received her B.A. in human communication studies, with a concentration in legal communications, from Howard University in 2003, and received her J.D. from Harvard Law School in 2006. While in law school, Tara participated in the Criminal Justice Institute where she represented indigent adult and juvenile clients in the Roxbury and Dorchester district court divisions of the Boston Municipal Court. During the summer after her first year of law school, Tara worked at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia. As a scholarship recipient in the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc. (“LDF”) Earl Warren Legal Training Program, during the summer after her second year of law school, Tara worked at Shearman & Sterling LLP and in the voter protection practice area at LDF. After law school, Tara clerked for the Honorable Richard W. Roberts in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.
Mark Loudon-Brown
Mark received a B.A. in philosophy from The Ohio State University in 2003 and a J.D. from New York University School of Law in 2007. Following his first year of law school, Mark interned at the Ohio Justice and Policy Center, an organization dedicated to protecting the rights of prisoners and former offenders. He spent the summer after his second year at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia. During his final semester of law school, Mark participated in the Alabama Capital Defender Clinic, representing death row clients in Alabama.
Andrew Stanner
Andrew graduated from Georgetown University in 1999, and received his J.D. from New York University in 2006. Prior to law school, he spent two years as a high school teacher in Chicago, followed by a year and a half teaching in Peru. While at NYU, Andrew spent summers at the Children’s Defense Fund, the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia, and the law firm of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett. As a clinic student, he represented clients in both the Juvenile Rights and Criminal Defense divisions of the Legal Aid Society of New York. Before coming to the Law Center, Andrew spent a year in Austin, Texas, where he clerked for the Honorable Fortunato P. Benavides, of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He is now in his second year as a Prettyman/Stiller fellow.
Stephanie Snyder
Stephanie graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 1999 and received her J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center in 2006. Prior to law school, Stephanie worked at a daytime drop-in center for people with HIV/AIDS and as a benefits advocate at a legal aid organization specifically geared towards working with homeless people with mental health issues. During law school, Stephanie participated in the Family Advocacy Clinic and the Criminal Justice Clinic, and also interned at the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, the Alexandria Public Defender's Office, and in both the trial and mental health divisions of the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia. Prior to returning to Georgetown, Stephanie clerked for the Honorable J. Michael Ryan on the D.C. Superior Court.
Emilia Beskind
Emilia received her B.A. in Political Science from the School of Public Affairs at American University in 2003 and received her J.D. from the Duke University School of Law in 2008. Prior to law school, Emilia interned at the ABA Death Penalty Representation Project and worked for both the Cornell Death Penalty Project and the Capital Jury Project. She also had a legislative internship for Senator Paul Wellstone focusing on juvenile justice issues and spent two years as a Teach for America Corp educator working at inner city schools in New Orleans. During law school, Emilia chaired the Duke Innocence Project, and did extensive pro bono work while on the Duke Public Interest Board. She also participated in the Death Penalty Clinic and a Criminal Defense Externship. During her summers, she was a Weston Fenhagen Fellow at the North Carolina Center for Death Penalty Litigation and a law clerk in the trial division of the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia.
Tim Curry
Tim received a B.S. in Broadcast Journalism from Syracuse University in 1995 and a J.D. from American University in 2007. Following his undergraduate studies, Tim worked as a journalist in the Boston area for several years before joining the Peace Corps 1998. After two years as a public health volunteer in Guinea, Tim stayed in West Africa working as a consultant for several aid organizations before moving to Washington, D.C., where he worked for the War Crimes Research Office, a legal non-profit focused on international criminal and humanitarian law. During his first summer in law school, Tim interned at DITSHWANELO – the Botswana Center for Human Rights, where he worked on projects aimed at protecting trial rights and advocating for the abolition of the death penalty in Botswana. While in law school, Tim also clerked for the D.C. Public Defender Service, in both the juvenile and adult trial sections, and had an externship with D.C.’s Whitman-Walker Clinic, where he helped clients who were HIV-positive access legal services and public benefits related to their health status. During his third year in law school, Tim was a student attorney with D.C. Law Students in Court, where he represented indigent criminal defendants charged with misdemeanors in D.C. Superior Court. After earning his J.D., Tim spent a year as the law clerk to the Honorable John Ramsey Johnson at D.C. Superior Court.
Alejandro Fernandez
First year E. Barrett Prettyman Fellow, Alejandro Fernandez, received his AB in philosophy from Harvard University in 2004. He worked for one year as an investigator for the Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem before entering NYU Law as a Root Tilden Kern Scholar. Upon graduation in 2008, Alejandro had completed four semesters of clinical work, two in each of the Immigrant Rights Clinic and the Juvenile Defender Clinic. During his law school summers he worked in the Center for Justice and International Law in Buenos Aires, and The Defender Association in Seattle.
Michael Marks
Michael Marks received a B.A. in philosophy from Columbia University in 2000 and a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 2008. After graduating from college, he worked at a technology company in Silicone Valley and taught English for two years in Quito, Ecuador. During law school, Michael represented indigent clients in Boston-area courts as a student-attorney at the Criminal Justice Institute and as the training director of Harvard Defenders. He spent his two summers at the Office of the Public Defender in Alexandria, VA, and at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia. Upon completion of the fellowship, Michael will clerk for the Hon. Richard Paez of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
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