Jeffery Robinson

Jeffery Robinson is a deputy legal director and the director of the ACLU Trone Center for Justice and Equality, which houses the organization’s work on criminal justice, racial justice, and reform issues. Since graduating from Harvard Law School in 1981, Jeffery has three decades of experience working on these issues. For seven years, he represented indigent clients in state court at The Defender Association and then in federal court at the Federal Public Defender’s Office, both in Seattle. In 1988, Jeffery began a 27-year private practice at the Seattle firm of Schroeter, Goldmark & Bender, where he represented a broad range of clients in local, state, and federal courts on charges ranging from shoplifting to securities fraud and first-degree murder. He has tried over 200 criminal cases to verdict and has tried more than a dozen civil cases representing plaintiffs suing corporate and government entities. Jeffery was one of the original members of the John Adams Project and worked on the behalf of one of five men held at Guantanamo Bay charged with carrying out the 9/11 attacks.

Jeffery has been listed in Best Lawyers in America since 1993. He has been selected as one of the top 100 black lawyers in America by Black Enterprise magazine and is an elected fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, whose membership is limited to one percent of the attorneys in any state. He is also consistently ranked as one of the top 10 Criminal Defense Lawyers in Washington State by Washington Law & Politics magazine. Jeffery has tried over 200 cases to verdict and represents a broad range of clients facing investigation or prosecution for white-collar crimes and other serious felony charges.

After graduating from Harvard Law School in 1981, Jeffery spent the next seven years representing indigent clients in state court at The Defender Association and then in federal court at The Federal Public Defender’s Office, both in Seattle. In private practice at SGB since 1988, Jeffery has successfully represented individuals and corporations in state and federal court on charges ranging from first-degree murder to healthcare fraud. He also has extensive experience representing clients in lengthy grand jury investigations that have resulted in no indictment.

In addition to being a nationally recognized trial attorney, Jeffery is also a respected teacher of trial advocacy and has lectured on trial skills all over the United States. He is a faculty member of the National Criminal Defense College in Macon, Georgia. He is a past President of the Washington Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and a winner of that Association’s prestigious William O. Douglas Award (2004).