Robin Steinberg
The Bronx Defenders
Honored by the National Legal Aid and Defender Association for her “exceptional vision, devotion and service in the quest for equal justice,” by the New York Bar Association for her “outstanding contribution to the delivery of defense services,” and awarded Harvard Law School’s Wasserstein Fellowship in recognition of her “outstanding contributions and dedication to public interest law,” Robin Steinberg is a leader and a pioneer in the field of indigent defense. A 1982 graduate of New York University School of Law, Robin has been a public defender her entire career and has extensive experience in every aspect of public defense.
In 1997, after beginning her career as a criminal trial lawyer and continuing as a founding member and deputy director of the Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem, Robin created The Bronx Defenders, a groundbreaking organization that employs a holistic defense model of representation to fight both the causes and consequences of involvement in the criminal justice system. An expert in holistic defense services that seek to meet a client’s legal and social support needs, Robin speaks nationally and internationally about public defense, interdisciplinary non-profit management and the holistic defense model. In 2012, she created the Holistic Defense Externship program with Columbia University School of Law where she teaches as a lecturer-in-law. Robin is the author of “Heeding Gideon’s Call in the 21st Century: Holistic Defense and the New Public Defense Paradigm” (forthcoming, Washington and Lee Law Review, Summer 2013) and “Beyond Lawyering: How Holistic Representation Makes for Good Public Policy, Better Lawyers and More Satisfied Clients” (NYU Journal of Law and Social Change, 2006).
