Nathan Fennell joined the Deason Criminal Justice Reform Center as a policy attorney in September 2024. His work focuses on litigation related to the Sixth Amendment Right to Counsel and improving representation for arrested people who cannot afford a lawyer. By challenging illegal and ineffective indigent defense systems across the country, Fennell advances the Deason Center’s advocacy and reform goals.
Before joining the Deason Center, Fennell served as an Equal Justice Works Fellow and then as Strategic Litigation Attorney at Texas Fair Defense Project. He also previously coordinated intake, appointment of counsel, and post-sentencing services at the Orleans Public Defenders. He began his professional career as a member of the Jesuit Volunteer Corps.
Fennell is a graduate of Stanford Law School, the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas - Austin, and the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill.