Oren Nimni

Oren Nimni is a nationally recognized expert in the law of prisons and incarceration. He currently serves Litigation Director at Rights Behind Bars (RBB). In this role Oren leads RBB’s docket and litigation strategy with a focus on utilizing a movement lawyering framework against prisons, jails, and immigration detention centers.

Before joining Rights Behind Bars, Oren was a Supervising Attorney at Lawyers for Civil Rights (LCR) where he directed and practiced in the organization’s immigrants’ rights and criminal justice dockets.

Oren is a member of the American Law Institute (ALI). He is the recipient of the American Constitution Society’s (ACS) 2023 David Carliner Award which recognized him as a top civil rights attorney in the country for his innovative litigation tactics and the Boston Bar Association’s 2020 President’s Award for impactful litigation in Massachusetts.

Oren has taught courses at numerous law schools and was a Co-founder and Legal Editor of Current Affairs magazine.

Throughout his career Oren has litigated high profile cases in trial and appellate courts, including:

• Approximately 40 federal appeals on behalf of clients in jails, prisons, or immigration detention centers.
• California Coalition for Women Prisoners et al v. Bureau of Prisons et al, a class action on behalf of hundreds people challenging the sexual assault and retaliation practice in a federal facility in California resulting in the first appointment of a Special Master at a Federal facility and the closure of FCI Dublin.
• Savino v. Souza, a COVID-19 class action that lead to the emptying and eventual closure of the Bristol County Detention Center; Multiple cases as part of a successful litigation campaign to end 287(g) agreements, contracts between sheriffs and the Department of Homeland Security that allow the sheriffs to detain migrants;
• Jones v. City of St. Louis, a class action on behalf of hundreds of people challenging macing and punitive water deprivation practices in the St. Louis City Jail;
• Edwards v. Ishee, challenging the shackling of a woman during labor and her involuntary withdrawal from MAT;
• Ryan v. ICE, a novel challenge to ICE’s ability to arrest people who have business before courts;
• Centro Presente v. Trump, a case to retain temporary protected status for hundreds of thousands of people from El Salvador, Honduras, and Haiti