Experience

Alameda County District Attorney's Office

• United States
• Legal Services
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Senior Assistant District Attorney and Policy Chief

  • Jan 2023 - Present

  Oakland, California, United States



Belly of the Beast LLC

• Advisor, Subject, Spokesperson

  • Aug 2010 - Present

  Oakland, California, United States Subject of, advisor to, and impact spokesperson for Belly of the Beast, an Emmy Award winning and Peabody nominated feature length documentary by filmmaker Erika Cohn, made in collaboration with people in California's women's prisons. This critically acclaimed film is an exposé of human rights abuses in women's prisons, highlighting modern-day eugenics and reproductive injustice. Rated 100% Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, Belly of the Beast won an Emmy for Best Current Affairs Documentary… Show more Subject of, advisor to, and impact spokesperson for Belly of the Beast, an Emmy Award winning and Peabody nominated feature length documentary by filmmaker Erika Cohn, made in collaboration with people in California's women's prisons. This critically acclaimed film is an exposé of human rights abuses in women's prisons, highlighting modern-day eugenics and reproductive injustice. Rated 100% Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, Belly of the Beast won an Emmy for Best Current Affairs Documentary and received 3 additional Emmys / Television Academy award nominations including Best Documentary & Best Director, a Peabody Awards nomination, was a New York Times Critics Pick and helped create political will for reparations to pass in California for forced sterilization survivors. The film features The Academy Awards shortlisted original song, "See What You've Done," written & performed by Mary J. Blige, co-written by Nova Wav and DJ Camper. Streaming on Apple TV, iTunes & Amazon Prime Video. Show less



University of California, Berkeley - School of Law

• United States
• Higher Education
• 100 - 200 Employee

• Adjunct Professor

  • Jan 2019 - Feb 2023

  Berkeley, California Teaching Practice 99: How to build a sustainable, affordable law practice serving the 99% who cannot afford full-priced legal representation.



Law Office of Cynthia Chandler

• Principal

  • Jul 2012 - Feb 2023

  California, United States  Shaping California state reproductive justice and anti-prison policy: Regularly advise policy coalitions on legislative language and strategy. Examples include drafting and serving as expert witness for: 2021 historic reparations bill passed unanimously by the CA legislature, making California the first state to compensate survivors of modern sterilization abuse in prisons and the third state to compensate survivors of historic state eugenics policy (AB 1007 (2021) (Author: Carrillo), SB… Show more  Shaping California state reproductive justice and anti-prison policy: Regularly advise policy coalitions on legislative language and strategy. Examples include drafting and serving as expert witness for: 2021 historic reparations bill passed unanimously by the CA legislature, making California the first state to compensate survivors of modern sterilization abuse in prisons and the third state to compensate survivors of historic state eugenics policy (AB 1007 (2021) (Author: Carrillo), SB 1135 (2014, Senator Jackson)(Principal coauthors: Senators Anderson and Hancock)(Principal coauthor Assembly Member Lowenthal) (protecting against coercive sterilization of people in prison); and AB 625 (2013)(Author: Assembly member Bill Quirk)(allowing state-issued prison identification cards to serve as valid identification for notary publics, thus facilitating visitation of thousands of California children with their imprisoned parents).  Policy Implementation: Advising the State of California Victim Compensation Board on implementation and accessibility of historic State reparations program making California the first state to compensate survivors of modern sterilization abuse in prisons, and the third state to compensate survivors of historic eugenic policy.  Advising grassroots nonprofits in moments of critical transition on formation structure, staff restructuring, board and fund development, and strategic planning. Brought in as a troubleshooter to help organizations rebuild or transform.  Compassionate release and sentence modification: Co-counsel and consult on compassionate release cases throughout California both prior to and during the COVID pandemic.  Litigation: Consulting with amici curiae related to compassionate release implementation, civil rights litigation addressing sterilization abuse in prisons, and challenges to gender bias of prison programming. Show less



Alameda County Bar Association

• United States
• Legal Services
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Director

  • Dec 2015 - Jan 2023

  Oakland, CA In short, I am a fairy godmother: I am democratizing the rule of law while coaching diverse, entrepreneurial attorneys to realize their dreams of building innovative, visionary, and sustainable community law practices that have social impact. More specifically, I am building a replicable, social mission legal incubator to accelerate the development of successful law practices with community impact serving disenfranchised communities and run by attorneys typically disenfranchised from successful… Show more In short, I am a fairy godmother: I am democratizing the rule of law while coaching diverse, entrepreneurial attorneys to realize their dreams of building innovative, visionary, and sustainable community law practices that have social impact. More specifically, I am building a replicable, social mission legal incubator to accelerate the development of successful law practices with community impact serving disenfranchised communities and run by attorneys typically disenfranchised from successful practice. I believe we will not have a democratic rule of law until systemic barriers to shaping the law and actualizing legal rights are lifted. Duties include: providing business, executive and crisis coaching to law business entrepreneurs; designing and implementing attorney continuing education curriculum on how to launch sustainable practices serving unmet legal markets; building the organizational infrastructure of the incubator, including branding, communications, fundraising, recruitment, marketing, and securing, designing and equipping the hub; building the reputation of the incubator within the national legal incubator movement and regional and state-wide legal communities; and serving as public spokesperson for the incubator. The Bay Area Legal Incubator - BALI for short - is a project of the Alameda County Bar Association and Volunteer Legal Services Corporation in collaboration with five Bay Area law schools (Berkeley, Golden Gate, Hastings, Santa Clara Law, USF) and Alameda County Law Library. Show less



Golden Gate University, School of Law

• United States
• Law Practice
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Adjuct Professor of Law

  • Jan 2011 - Dec 2017

  Teaching courses on Legislative Practice, Launching Social Ventures, Social Change Lawyering, Prison Industrial Complex Abolition, Wrongful Convictions, and Externship Field Placements.

• Interim Associate Dean for Law Career Services and Alumni Relations and Adjunct Professor

  • Jul 2015 - Jan 2016

  San Francisco Bay Area Direct operations, programs and staffing for career services office serving approximately 450 JD, LLM and SJD students. Design and present career development programs, workshops, and recruiting events. Counsel students and attorneys about career development in individual and small group settings. Oversee employer outreach and marketing efforts. Hire, train and supervise counselors and administrative personnel. Lead program planning process for department, assessing progress and setting… Show more Direct operations, programs and staffing for career services office serving approximately 450 JD, LLM and SJD students. Design and present career development programs, workshops, and recruiting events. Counsel students and attorneys about career development in individual and small group settings. Oversee employer outreach and marketing efforts. Hire, train and supervise counselors and administrative personnel. Lead program planning process for department, assessing progress and setting prioritization and goals for future success. Collecting and analyzing statistics regarding graduate employment status, student usage of services, and other initiatives. Editing departmental publications and marketing materials. Presenting information to dean, faculty, alumni, and other interested groups about career development progress of students. Serving on a variety of faculty committees, including Incubator Committee and Experiential Learning Committee. Collaborating on interdepartmental projects such as first year orientation and admissions recruiting. Representing the school in designing and launching an innovative modest-means incubator program designed to accelerate the development of alumni's solo practices.

• Director of Public Interest Programs and Adjunct Professor

  • Aug 2014 - Jun 2015

  San Francisco Bay Area Advanced the public interest reputation and brand of the Golden Gate University Law School. Envisioned, managed and promoted public interest programming. Provided career counseling to public interest and public sector oriented students.

• Public Interest Career Counselor

  • Aug 2013 - Aug 2014

  San Francisco Bay Area



Justice Now

• United States
• Law Practice
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Co-Founder, Exec. Director

  • Sep 2000 - Sep 2012

  Co-Founder and Director of visionary organization partnering with women in prison and local communities to build a safe, compassionate world without prisons. Justice Now was designed to be the organization challenging gendered violence and imprisonment. It was the first organization with its leadership board comprised of people in prison serving time, not released. It launched the first-in-the world human rights participatory documentation program - training hundreds of people in women's… Show more Co-Founder and Director of visionary organization partnering with women in prison and local communities to build a safe, compassionate world without prisons. Justice Now was designed to be the organization challenging gendered violence and imprisonment. It was the first organization with its leadership board comprised of people in prison serving time, not released. It launched the first-in-the world human rights participatory documentation program - training hundreds of people in women's prisons on human rights law and documentation, as well as how to train their peers, and building an international jurisprudence on the right to family. This program went on to file reports with the United Nations and uncover proof that the California Department of Corrections was illegally sterilizing people in women's prisons during labor and delivery and unrelated abdominal surgeries. All programs were built in collaboration with women in prison and with an eye toward challenging the prison industrial complex and gendered violence overall. Responsibilities included: 1. Directing direct legal service, human rights, state/national policy, peer education, grassroots organizing, and clinical training programming; 2. Organizational development, including designing a social change curriculum for interns and organizers both inside and outside prison that coordinated provision of direct legal services with policy work, strategic communications, human rights, and grassroots organizing; 3. Managing and recruiting professional staff, over 1000 interns, and hundreds of volunteers inside and out of prison and from all walks of life; 4. Overseeing fund development (grassroots, foundation, donor drives), financial systems and office administration. 5. Serving as key spokesperson in media, legislative, and academic settings. Show less



Women's Positive Legal Action Network

• Founder, Director

  • Sep 1995 - Aug 2000

  Founder and Director of the first organization in the United States designed to advocate on behalf of HIV-positive women caught in the criminal justice system. As one piece of work, created and legislated the process of compassionate release, allowing the early release from prison of terminally ill or permanently incapacitated people. this process was then replicated nationally. Duties and responsibilities included: 1. Designing and directing programming of organization in collaboration… Show more Founder and Director of the first organization in the United States designed to advocate on behalf of HIV-positive women caught in the criminal justice system. As one piece of work, created and legislated the process of compassionate release, allowing the early release from prison of terminally ill or permanently incapacitated people. this process was then replicated nationally. Duties and responsibilities included: 1. Designing and directing programming of organization in collaboration with a grassroots base of members living with HIV/Hepatitis C in prison; 2. Managing employees, independent contractors, and volunteers; 3. Directing communications strategies exposing special needs of HIV+ women in prison; and 4. Providing legal representation in the following areas: compassionate release, alternative sentencing, sentencing mitigation, lifer parole hearings, powers of attorney, and SSI appeals; 5. Co-drafting and lobbying for compassionate release legislation in California. 6. Overseeing fund development, including grant writing, direct mailing, and donor drives; and 7. Managing organizational development and office administration. Show less



Blind Eye To Justice

• Producer

  • Jan 1997 - Jan 2000

  Producer of "Blind Eye to Justice: HIV+ Women Incarcerated in California", a documentary portraying the injustices of the CA prison system as seen through the eyes of HIV-positive women in prison. Featuring narration by Angela Davis and including Rachel Maddow, the documentary was featured at film festivals internationally following its 1998 debut, and achieved significant critical acclaim, including winning “Best Documentary Video” at the XIV International Black Film Festival. Production… Show more Producer of "Blind Eye to Justice: HIV+ Women Incarcerated in California", a documentary portraying the injustices of the CA prison system as seen through the eyes of HIV-positive women in prison. Featuring narration by Angela Davis and including Rachel Maddow, the documentary was featured at film festivals internationally following its 1998 debut, and achieved significant critical acclaim, including winning “Best Documentary Video” at the XIV International Black Film Festival. Production responsibilities included organizing staff, volunteers, and funding for production and distribution; creating the documentary’s concept, script; and story boards; editing; and developing promotional material. Responsibilities include overseeing financing, pre and post production, and distribution. Show less