Alec Karakatsanis

Alec Karakatsanis is the founder and executive director of Civil Rights Corps, a non-profit dedicated to fighting systemic injustice in American law. He graduated Yale College in 2005 and Harvard Law School in 2008, where he was a Supreme Court Chair of the Harvard Law Review.

Before founding Civil Rights Corps, Karakatsanis was a civil rights lawyer and public defender with the Special Litigation Division of the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia; a federal public defender in Alabama, representing impoverished people accused of federal crimes; and co-founder of the non-profit organization Equal Justice Under Law.

Karakatsanis has received several awards for his work, including being named 2016 Trial Lawyer of the Year by Public Justice. His professional interests include ending human caging, surveillance, and the death penalty. He is the author of several books, most recently including Usual Cruelty. Learn more.