Southern Center for Human Rights
Atlanta, GA
Madeleine O’Neill will be representing indigent clients facing the death penalty as a member of the Capital Litigation Unit at Southern Center for Human Rights. During law school, Madeleine focused her professional and academic work on civil rights, racial justice, and international human rights, with a particular commitment to domestic criminal justice and indigent defense. In her 3L year, she represented indigent clients in state trial courts with Harvard’s Criminal Justice Institute and interned with the Federal Public Defender Office. As a 2L, she worked on death penalty litigation in Missouri through the Capital Punishment Clinic and aided members of the Boston community in sealing their criminal records with Greater Boston Legal Services’ CORI Project. Madeleine spent her 2L summer advocating for the civil rights of incarcerated and supervised individuals with the Ohio Justice & Policy Center as a Justice Stevens Public Interest Fellow. She also participated in the Harvard Prison Legal Assistance Project and investigated racial discrimination in jury selection as a research assistant. Her other public interest work includes a summer advocating for asylum-seekers in Israel as a Chayes Fellow with the Migrants’ Rights Clinic; serving as Co-President of Harvard Law Student Advocates for Human Rights; and conducting varied research and legal services work related to immigrants’ rights and international human rights. Prior to law school, Madeleine received a B.A. in Literary Arts from Brown University and taught kindergarten, elementary, and middle school students in South Korea.