Shelby Leighton joined Public Justice in March 2022 as a staff attorney in the Access to Justice Project. She litigates high-impact cases with the goal of making the civil court system a fair, equitable, and effective tool for those with less power to win just outcomes and hold those with more power accountable, including cases…
Michael Skocpol is a Senior Staff Attorney with the Access to Justice Project, based in Washington, D.C. He litigates high-impact cases in state and federal court, with the goal of making sure regular people can have their day in court. He has experience with both trial and appellate litigation across a wide range of legal issues,…
Jacqueline Arkush is a 2025-2026 Justice Catalyst Fellow working at Public Justice to expose private correctional healthcare providers’ wrongdoing by utilizing the public’s right of access to court records and therefore facilitating the ability of legal and community-based advocates to hold these companies and the government accountable.
Leslie A. Bailey is Director of the organization’s Debtors’ Prison Project, in Public Justice’s West Coast office. Leslie litigates complex public interest cases and appeals involving civil rights and liberties, consumer protection, and court secrecy. She has briefed, argued, and won cases in state and federal appellate courts across the country and has testified in both…
Brian Hardingham is a Senior Attorney with the Debtors’ Prison Project. He litigates cases challenging the illegal use of money bail, excessive fees attached to conditions of pretrial release and probation, the imposition of excessive fines, and other scenarios in which a person’s inability to pay money leads to jail or other adverse consequences in…
Charles Moore is a staff attorney with the Debtors’ Prison Project. He is based in the Washington, DC office of Public Justice. Before joining Public Justice, Charles had experience both in civil litigation and criminal defense in multiple roles. Immediately prior to joining Public Justice, Charles was a public defender in the State of Maryland. …
Alex is a Senior Attorney with the Debtors’ Prison Project, based in Northern California. Before joining Public Justice, Alex was the Associate Vice President for Strategic Litigation at the Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) in Boston, Massachusetts, where she managed a team of several attorneys and paralegals on groundbreaking federal Clean Water Act cases against major…
Jacqui Oesterblad is a staff attorney with the Debtors’ Prison Project (DPP). She is based in southern Arizona. In her work, Jacqui helps to develop and litigate cases nationwide challenging policies in the criminal legal system that treat people differently as a result of their poverty or homelessness. Jacqui received her J.D. from Yale Law…