Hannah Kieschnick

Hannah Kieschnick

Staff Attorney

Hannah Kieschnick joined Public Justice in August 2023 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 and effective tool for those with less power to win just outcomes and hold those with more power accountable.

Before coming to Public Justice, Hannah was a staff attorney at the ACLU of Northern California, where she primarily focused on First Amendment issues. Some highlights of her work there include: obtaining a preliminary injunction prohibiting the enforcement of a “buffer zone” ordinance around homeless encampments, ultimately resulting in the city rescinding the ordinance; filing a number of amicus briefs, including in the Ninth Circuit, regarding a California law that overregulated physician speech, ultimately resulting in the legislature rescinding the challenged law; and developing and litigating other cases related to systemic issues in the criminal legal system.

Hannah also previously served as a deputy county counsel and legal fellow in the Social Justice and Impact Litigation Section of the County of Santa Clara’s County Counsel’s Office. There, her practice focused on high-impact affirmative litigation and drafting local ordinances designed to advance social and economic justice. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Hannah also helped draft, interpret, and defend in federal and state court the County’s public health measures. She successfully argued against a preliminary injunction and emergency stays in the Northern District of California and Ninth Circuit in a Free Exercise Clause challenge to some of the County’s public health measures before the U.S. Supreme Court stayed those measures.

Hannah graduated from Yale University and Stanford Law School. During law school, she participated in the Supreme Court Litigation Clinic and the Housing Pro Bono and was on the board of the Stanford chapter of the American Constitution Society. After law school, Hannah clerked for Judge Stephen Reinhardt and Judge Richard A. Paez of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and Judge Christopher R. Cooper of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.