Julia Udell is pursuing a JD at Yale Law School where she will focus on improving the criminal legal system. She graduated from Columbia University (Phi Beta Kappa) where she studied History and was a Truman Scholar. 

While a student at Columbia, Julia assisted with death penalty and life without parole litigation, including by conducting an empirical study on a procedural injustice in the federal judiciary in support of an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. She also interned as an investigator for the Bronx Defenders and contributed to research and advocacy for the Brennan Center for Justice.  

Following Columbia, she pursued a master’s in Criminology at Oxford as a Euretta J. Kellett Fellow, writing her dissertation on public-private profiteering in jails and prisons. After returning from Oxford, she worked as a Litigation Support Fellow at Civil Rights Corps, challenging the exploitation of incarcerated people and their loved ones. 

Julia aspires to use her law degree to transform the criminal legal system and create a more free and just society. She is from New York City.