Clinic Faculty & Staff
Vida B. Johnson, Director, Professor of Law
Vida Johnson is a Professor of Law at Georgetown law, where she co-directs the Criminal Justice Clinic. She is also the co-Director of the E. Barrett Prettyman Program, a post-graduate training program for aspiring public defenders. She is a graduate of NYU Law School and the University of California at Berkeley. After graduating law school, she was an E. Barrett Prettyman fellow at Georgetown Law. After her time as a fellow, she was a public defender in Washington DC, where she handled serious cases. She also supervised public defenders there. Prof. Johnson writes about criminal procedure, policing and race.
John M. Copacino, Professor of Law Emeritus
Professor Copacino was the Director of the Criminal Justice Clinic and the E. Barrett Prettyman graduate fellowship in criminal trial advocacy. Prior to joining the 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. as a Prettyman Fellow at the Law Center. He has served as lead counsel in hundreds of criminal cases and post conviction cases in the District of Columbia. He regularly participates in local and national training programs for criminal defense lawyers.
Amanda K. Rogers, Visiting Professor of Law
Amanda K. Rogers is a Visiting Professor at Georgetown Law, teaching and supervising in the Criminal Justice Clinics. Previously, Professor Rogers directed and started the Caritas Clemency Clinic at Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law. She and her students represented incarcerated individuals seeking release from prison through compassionate release. She litigated cases in federal district courts across the country, including Alabama, Kansas, Maryland, Missouri, North Carolina, Texas and the Virgin Islands. Prof. Rogers began her criminal defense career with Georgetown Law’s Prettyman fellowship. After the fellowship, Prof. Rogers joined the Public Defender Service as a trial attorney representing both adults and children charged with serious felonies in D.C. Superior Court. By the end of her tenure, she was a supervising attorney and served on PDS’ forensic practice group, which trained and supervised lawyers involved in forensic science litigation.
Pierce Suen, Visiting Professor of Law
Pierce Suen is a Visiting Professor at Georgetown Law, teaching and supervising in the Criminal Justice Clinics. Before joining Georgetown, Pierce spent a decade at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia where he was a supervising attorney. During his time at PDS, Pierce tried cases ranging from fare evasion to first-degree murder and represented indigent clients at every level of proceedings—in juvenile, misdemeanor, and felony court, and in direct appeals, parole revocation, and post-conviction relief. Pierce is a faculty instructor at Harvard Law School’s Trial Advocacy Workshop and has conducted trainings for the Washington Counsel of Lawyers, the Navy JAG Corps, and the NACDL National Forensic College. Pierce is a graduate of NYU Law, where he was a Root-Tilden-Kern scholar, and the University of Chicago.
Lauren VonWiegen, Investigations Supervisor
Lauren is the Investigations Supervisor and Director of the Investigative Internship Program. She received a B.A. in Criminal Justice from Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Lauren went on to spend nearly seven years working as an Investigative Specialist at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia, where she investigated both pre-trial serious felony cases and worked as a Defense Victim Outreach Specialist on IRAA cases.
Kevin Steward, E. Barrett Prettyman Fellow
Kevin Steward grew up in northern New Jersey and received his law degree from University of California, Berkeley. At Berkeley, interned at the East Bay Community Law Center in the Decriminalizing Poverty unit and during his 3L year, he was a student in the Death Penalty Clinic. During his law school summers, Kevin was a law clerk at Alameda County Public Defender’s Office and at the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta. Prior to law school, Kevin worked as the Associate Program Director for the Riverside Hawks Hope Health and Hoops Corporation, a nonprofit in Harlem. He received his B.A. from the University of Michigan.
Jacob Friedman, E. Barrett Prettyman Fellow
Jacob Friedman (he/him) grew up in Pittsboro, North Carolina and received his law degree from the University of Georgia. While at UGA, he interned for the local public defender’s office in Athens, Georgia. During his law school summers, Jacob interned for the Federal Public Defender’s Office for the Northern District of Alabama as well as the Mecklenburg County Public Defender’s Office in Charlotte, North Carolina. After law school, Jacob clerked for Chief Judge Leigh Martin May of the Northern District of Georgia. He received his B.S.B.A from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In his free time, Jacob enjoys writing and performing original music.