Lisa Schreibersdorf, Esq.

Executive Director

 

Lisa Schreibersdorf is the founder of Brooklyn Defender Services and she currently serves as its Executive Director. Ms. Schreibersdorf also currently serves as President of the New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

 

In 2008, Lisa was awarded the New York State Bar Association's Michele S. Maxian Award for Outstanding Public Defender in recognition for her work on behalf of her clients for 24 years. An article about her achievements appeared in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.

 

Ms. Schreibersdorf is on the Board of Directors of the New York State Defender's Association and the Brooklyn Women's Bar Association. She is co-chair of the Legislative Committee for the Women's Bar Association of the State of New York. Ms. Schreibersdorf also serves on the Democratic Party Judicial Screening Committee for Kings County, helping to assure the qualifications of our judiciary.

 

Ms. Schreibersdorf graduated from St. John's School of Law in 1984, after being appointed editor of the law review and receiving a full scholarship. She began her career as a staff attorney with The Legal Aid Society in Brooklyn. Ms. Schreibersdorf served as a supervisor as well, training new attorneys to represent clients, while continuing to hone her skills as a trial attorney. In 1995, when the City of New York decentralized public defense services, Ms. Schreibersdorf drafted one of the first proposals to start a smaller, borough-focused office in Brooklyn. When that contract was awarded, Brooklyn Defender Services was formed.

 

Ms. Schreibersdorf has served on the planning committees of the Brooklyn Misdemeanor Treatment Court, the Brooklyn Mental Health Court and other problem-solving courts in Brooklyn. She is an outspoken advocate for the rights of clients in those courts, advising public defenders throughout the country on issues of confidentiality and due process in the context of specialty courts.

 

Ms. Schreibersdorf represents Brooklyn Defender Services and its clients at the Criminal Forum, a gathering of chiefs of the criminal justice system's agencies and at a numerous other committees and commissions relating to the administration of justice in Brooklyn and New York State.