News & Commentary written by Megan Byrne

Megan Byrne joined as a staff attorney with the ACLU Capital Punishment Project after spending several years as an appellate public defender at the Center for Appellate Litigation, where she represented indigent clients in New York. While there, she served as a Supervising Attorney and founded and directed the Racial Justice Project, which identified and developed resources for reoccurring racial equity issues in criminal appeals. She also led an Anti-Racism Working Group that focused on non-litigation strategies for addressing racial bias in the criminal legal system. Before becoming an appellate public defender, Megan worked as a litigation associate at Kirkland & Ellis LLP, where her pro bono work focused on criminal appeals for indigent clients.

Megan graduated from Stanford Law School with pro bono distinction. While at Stanford, Megan represented clients at the trial and appellate levels in Stanford’s Criminal Defense Clinic and spent a summer working for the New York Center for Juvenile Justice. She holds a B.A. in English and Philosophy from Indiana University, where she graduated with high distinction.