Strategic Litigation

Lauren Gottesman joined the Innocence Project’s strategic litigation department as a staff attorney in May 2020, where she focuses on suggestive identification practices and police interrogation. Prior to joining the Innocence Project, Lauren was a public defender at the Legal Aid Society’s Manhattan Criminal Defense Practice. During her last year at the Legal Aid Society, Lauren worked in their Decarceration Project, where she provided consultation, training, and direct advocacy regarding pre-trial detention issues. Before her work at the Legal Aid Society, Lauren clerked for two years for the Honorable James L. Dennis on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans, Louisiana. During law school, Lauren interned with the Innocence Project’s post-conviction litigation unit for a full academic year. Lauren graduated from Cardozo Law School in 2013, and from Trinity College in 2008.

As the director of strategic litigation (Joseph Flom Special Counsel), Chris Fabricant leads the Innocence Project’s strategic litigation department, whose attorneys develop and execute national litigation and public policy strategies to address the leading causes of wrongful conviction. Chris is one of the United States’ leading experts on forensic sciences and scientific litigation. He is a former longtime public defender and law professor, frequently serves as a public speaker on law reform issues, and is widely published in both legal scholarship and in mainstream media. In his new book, Junk Science and the American Criminal Justice System, Chris examines the role that faulty scientific evidence has in continuing and strengthening an unjust and racial biased criminal legal system.

Mitha Nandagopalan joined the Innocence Project’s strategic litigation department as a staff attorney in February 2023 to work on the Neighborhood Project, focusing on the community impacts of racialized police surveillance and mass misdemeanor arrests. Before joining the Innocence Project, Mitha represented individuals facing criminal charges as an assistant public defender at the Law Offices of the Public Defender of New Mexico in Albuquerque. Prior to that, they clerked for Justice Susan Carney on the Alaska Supreme Court in Fairbanks. They graduated in 2018 with a J.D. from Harvard Law School, where their clinical work focused on representing indigent tenants facing eviction and housing discrimination, and they hold a master’s from Hunter College and a B.A. from NYU.

As a Strategic Litigation paralegal, Rachel Gaudreau supports the work of the department’s attorneys who litigate issues related to the misapplication of forensic sciences. Previously, Rachel worked as a paralegal in the Criminal Appeals Bureau at the Legal Aid Society, where she aided attorneys in their appellate and post-conviction representation of indigent New Yorkers. She is a graduate of Georgetown University, where she first began her work with incarcerated people through a university-led tutoring program.

Rachel remains committed to working zealously on behalf of system-impacted people and building a legal system based on compassion and humanity.

Tania Brief is Senior Strategic Litigation Counsel (Forensics) at the Innocence Project, where she focuses on strategies to address the misapplication of forensic science, which is a leading cause of wrongful conviction. Tania’s work involves direct representation of clients in all stages of litigation, as well as amicus briefing on behalf of both the Innocence Project and groups of scientists, physicians, and other academics who seek to present neutral and accurate information to courts about the scientific underpinnings — or lack thereof – of various forensic disciplines. Tania also consults with and conducts trainings for defense attorneys around the country.

Tania’s commitment to addressing the failures of the criminal legal system was shaped by her nearly 10 years as a public defender at The Bronx Defenders. Tania also served as a law clerk to the Honorable William H. Pauley III, United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York, and as a litigation associate at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. Tania received her J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center and her B.A. from Yale University.

Zawar Ahmed joined the Innocence Project in 2024 as a Strategic Litigation paralegal. He assists the department’s attorneys in issues related to eyewitness misidentification and coercive police interrogation. Before joining the Innocence Project, Zawar worked as a litigation paralegal at Cravath, Swaine & Moore, where his pro bono work focused on racial justice, law enforcement misconduct, and immigrant advocacy. He is a graduate of Yale University. In his free time, Zawar loves to make oil paintings and read books on the subway.