Lauren Jones, Legal & Policy Director, helps to guide all of NCAJ’s activities, and leads its work on fines and fees reform. She co-teaches the Access to Justice Seminar at Fordham Law School. Before joining NCAJ, Lauren was the Program Manager of the Greater Justice New York Project at the Vera Institute of Justice, where her work spanned all areas of criminal legal reform, from pretrial justice to parole. During her time at the Vera Institute, Lauren designed what has become Manhattan Justice Opportunities, an alternative to incarceration program that seeks to provide stability in people's lives instead of punishment. Prior to Vera, Lauren was the Civil Rights National Counsel at the Anti-Defamation League, where she drove its work on a wide range of issues, from voting rights to education equity, immigration reform to women’s rights. For her work there, she received the Milton A. Senn Award. Lauren began her legal career at the Center for Family Representation, where she defended parents in abuse and neglect proceedings. Before law school, she worked at the Brennan Center for Justice, where her work was cited by the U.S. Supreme Court. Lauren has spoken nationally and internationally on fines and fees, criminal legal reform, civil rights, discrimination, and more. She has co-authored friend-of-the-court briefs in numerous cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and appellate courts around the country, and her writing has been published in The Washington Post, The Daily News, Bloomberg News, and more. A graduate of NYU and NYU School of Law,  Lauren received the Anne Petluck Poses Memorial Prize for excellence in clinical work.