Moira Meltzer-Cohen

Moira Meltzer-Cohen is a Visiting Clinical Lecturer in Law at Yale Law School. Meltzer-Cohen (Mo/they/she) is an abolitionist, lawyer, and educator supporting people’s liberation movements, with a focus on advocacy for elderly and gender nonconforming persons in prison. They were Staff Attorney for the Water Protector Legal Collective, coordinating the defense of people arrested at the Standing Rock site resisting the Dakota Access Pipeline. In March 2020 they secured the release of Chelsea Manning, who was jailed for civil contempt arising from a federal grand jury subpoena. They continue to defend people arrested in the George Floyd uprisings, and to challenge politically motivated grand jury subpoenas targeting indigenous activists. Meltzer-Cohen graduated from the University of Michigan Residential College in 2000, with a bachelor’s degree in humanities; from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in 2004, with an M.S. in curriculum and instruction; and from the CUNY School of Law in 2012, with a J.D. She is admitted to practice in the Courts of the State of New York, the federal District Courts of New York, and the U.S. Supreme Court.