Justine Olderman

Justine Olderman holds a joint appointment at NYU’s Marron Institute and NYU School of Law, where she is building a collaborative, multi-decade strategy for achieving universal pretrial freedom.  Her project will bring together impacted individuals, advocates, researchers, and legal experts to create actionable recommendations across public education, culture, policy, litigation, research, and innovative alternatives to detention. By centering the presumption of innocence and prioritizing community-based solutions, her initiative aims to catalyze the end of pretrial detention and lay the groundwork for lasting, systemic transformation.

Justine joined NYU in 2024 after serving as the Executive Director of The Bronx Defenders.  As Executive Director, Justine led the organization through the COVID-19 pandemic; embraced unionization and negotiated one of the most progressive collective bargaining agreements in the field; oversaw the development and implementation of major DEI initiatives; expanded BxD’s Early Defense program, creating an off ramp to the legal system; deepened the organization’s community engagement work through the creation of the Bronx Cannabis Hub and the Bronx Leadership & Organizing Center; grew BxD’s policy and organizing work, which helped secure bail and discovery reform as well as the decriminalization of marijuana and driving with a suspended license; and supported several high-profile impact litigation cases brought by BxD that radically reduced ICE’s power to detain immigrants, held NYPD’s use of sealed records unconstitutional, ensured due process for people facing the loss of their home through the issuance of orders of protection, and secured a first-of its-kind, pre-litigation settlement with the City for violating the rights of protesters.

Justine joined BxD in 2000 as a staff attorney. During her 23 years at BxD, she also held the roles of Supervisor, Team Leader, Managing Attorney of the Criminal Defense Practice, and Managing Director of BxD before succeeding Robin Steinberg as the Executive Director. Justine graduated magna cum laude and Order of the Coif from New York University School of Law. She spent two years clerking for Judge Robert J. Ward in the Southern District of New York. She also holds a B.A. from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.