Alexandra Harrington

Alexandra Harrington joined the UB School of Law faculty in the fall of 2020 where she directs the law school’s new Criminal Justice Advocacy Clinic, as well as the Advocacy Institute’s Innocence and Justice Project. Before coming to Buffalo, Professor Harrington was a Senior Liman Fellow in Residence at the Arthur Liman Center for Public Interest Law at Yale Law School. In that role, she supervised students working on projects related to criminal justice reform. Liman Projects have included production of reports that provide nationwide data on the use of solitary confinement in U.S. prisons, preparation of testimony and recommendations for a briefing on women in prison before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, and research on criminal system fines and fees in Connecticut. Professor Harrington also co-taught the Liman Workshop, and taught a first-year legal writing course.

Previously, she was a Yale Public Interest Fellow and then a Deputy Assistant Public Defender with the Connecticut Division of Public Defender Services in the Innocence Project/Post-Conviction Unit. Professor Harrington helped to shape and coordinate the Division’s representation of individuals who were sentenced as juveniles in adult court to lengthy prison terms. She oversaw the Division’s implementation of newly created juvenile parole hearings. She also represented clients in habeas corpus proceedings, motions to correct an illegal sentence, and state appeals; and she obtained early parole release for clients who served decades in prison for crimes committed as teenagers. Her work grew out of a law school project with the Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic advocating for fair sentencing and second-look review for people incarcerated as juveniles.

Professor Harrington graduated in 2014 from Yale Law School where, in addition to the Lowenstein Clinic, she participated in the Capital Punishment Clinic, the Iraqi Refugee Assistance Project, and served as student director of the Schell Center for International Human Rights, the Initiative for Public Interest Law at Yale, and the Rebellious Lawyering Public Interest Conference. She holds a B.A. from Vanderbilt University. She grew up in Buffalo, and is thrilled to be returning to her hometown.