Calvin Duncan
Calvin Duncan is a legal expert, author and educator focused on expanding access to the courts for incarcerated people. Beginning May, 2026, he is the incoming clerk of Orleans Parish Criminal Court in New Orleans. His bestselling memoir, The Jailhouse Lawyer, chronicles his twenty-eight and a half year journey through Louisiana prisons serving a life sentence without parole for a murder he did not commit. While incarcerated, Duncan became a jailhouse lawyer, helping hundreds of fellow prisoners challenge wrongful convictions and unjust sentences. His work contributed to landmark U.S. Supreme Court decisions, including Smith v. Cain (2012) and Ramos v. Louisiana (2020). He holds a JD from Lewis & Clark Law School and lives in New Orleans, where he teaches criminal law in the Tulane School of Professional Advancement.
Robin Steinberg
Robin Steinberg is a pioneering criminal justice reform leader who founded three high impact organizations - The Bronx Defenders, Still She Rises and The Bail Project - and has dedicated over 40 years to transforming America’s legal system. Steinberg’s career began as a criminal trial lawyer with the Legal Aid Society in New York City, where she developed a deep commitment to defending the underserved. She was a founding member and deputy director of The Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem before establishing the groundbreaking organization, The Bronx Defenders, a nationally recognized community-based public defender office that has served Bronx residents for almost three decades. Under her leadership, The Bronx Defenders pioneered a “holistic defense” model of public defense that addresses not only the immediate legal needs of its clients but also the underlying social and economic factors that contribute to criminal justice involvement. Steinberg also founded Still She Rises in Tulsa, Oklahoma, a holistic public defender office dedicated exclusively to the unique needs and representation of women and mothers in the criminal justice system.
In 2017, Steinberg launched The Bail Project, a national initiative to combat mass incarceration by transforming the pretrial and cash bail system. To date, The Bail Project has paid bail for over 38,000 people, while amassing a national data set to prove that cash bail is unnecessary, while modeling its “community release with support” model of pretrial justice that supports bail recipients throughout the pretrial process. Her first book, “The Courage of Compassion: A Journey from Judgment to Connection,” was published in 2022 by Penguin Random House and her upcoming book, “The Bail Trap: A Scandal at the Heart of American Justice,” will be released in 2026 by the New Press.
Dima Khalidi
Dima Khalidi is the founder and director of Palestine Legal, an organization dedicated to protecting the constitutional and civil rights of people speaking out for Palestinian freedom in the US. Dima founded the organization in 2013 on the belief that grassroots movements are what create transformative change, and that movement lawyers have a critical role to play to protect and advance organizing for justice on the ground, especially when movements are faced with backlash from powerful forces. Dima has over two decades of experience as a lawyer, educator, writer, and advocate. Prior to founding Palestine Legal, she worked as co-counsel with the Center for Constitutional Rights on a campaign to stop the desecration of an ancient Muslim cemetery in Jerusalem, and as an intern and volunteer on various cases that sought to hold Israeli officials and corporations accountable for violations of international law. Dima has a JD from DePaul University College of Law, an MA in International and Comparative Legal Studies from the University of London – SOAS, and a BA in History and Near Eastern Studies from the University of Michigan. Dima speaks and advocates extensively on Palestinian rights issues in legal, academic and public arenas, including in media forums and other outlets.