A public defense attorney for 25 years, Cathryn Crawford has held a variety of positions, including: Clinical Professor, Northwestern University School of Law (Chicago, 1998-2011); inaugural director of the first juvenile public defender’s office in New Orleans (now Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights, 2007); Special Counsel to the Office of Capital Writs and capital defender (Texas 2012-2017); and Litigation Director, Lawndale Christian Legal Center (Chicago, 2017-2021). She is currently on sabbatical.

Her practice has focused on challenging police misconduct, junk science and unconstitutional / unfair / racist laws and legal practices. She routinely ticks off judges, prosecutors, and the CPD. She and her students have represented Burge torture victims and worked with a coalition of lawyers and community activists to abolish the death penalty in Illinois. In 2002, she launched a comprehensive, multi-year investigation into Detective Reynaldo Guevara, laying the foundation for several successful post-conviction petitions and civil lawsuits. She has trained countless public defenders across the country, conducted indigent defense assessments in several states and lectured and written on several defense-related topics. Cathryn's single mother of seven, a community activist and journalist, is the source of her unwavering commitment to social justice and civil rights, and her love of people.