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Catherine Weiss is Senior Counsel to the firm's Litigation Department and Director of Public Interest Advocacy for the Lowenstein Center for the Public Interest. Ms. Weiss has extensive advocacy experience. She most recently served as Director, Division of Public Interest Advocacy for the New Jersey Department of the Public Advocate, where she created and managed a division of state government dedicated to protecting and advancing the public interest through a coordinated program of research, investigation, reporting, advocacy, and litigation. She has worked on diverse issues including eminent domain reform, prevention of childhood lead poisoning, voting rights, affordable housing, and tenants' rights during and following foreclosure.
Before joining the New Jersey Department of the Public Advocate, Ms. Weiss served as Deputy Director for the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law. There she directed legislative advocacy, litigation, and communications aimed at restoring voting rights to people with criminal convictions and advocated for broader voting rights and election reform efforts. For fourteen years at the start of her career, she worked at the NYCLU and at the national office of the ACLU where she served as Director of the Reproductive Freedom Project.
Ms. Weiss has also consulted for the ACLU, Human Rights Watch, Planned Parenthood of New York City and other non-profit organizations on an array of issues. She regularly speaks on a variety of topics and taught a seminar on reproductive rights at Rutgers University School of Law. She clerked for the Honorable Alvin B. Rubin of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Speaking Engagements:
- Panelist, "Jails and Jumpsuits: Transforming the U.S. Immigration Detention System – A Two‐Year Review," Human Rights First Panel Discussion, December 2, 2011
- Facilitator, "Maintaining Momentum: Doing More with Less," Pro Bono Institute Annual Seminar and Forum on In-House Pro Bono, March 3, 2011
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In The Star Ledger, Catherine Weiss comments on the problem of inadequate legal representation in immigration cases.,
The Star Ledger, October 25, 2011
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James Stewart comments on how including a photo of a phone booth-sized cage used to hold mentally ill inmates in California with the amicus brief he prepared with Kenneth Zimmerman, Catherine Weiss and Michael Long, helped influence the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Plata. The decision requires California prisons to eliminate unconstitutional conditions by reducing critical and dangerous overcrowding.,
New Jersey Law Journal, May 27, 2011
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Catherine Weiss and Christine Boyle are recognized as Kids in Need of Defense (KIND) pro bono attorneys of the month for their work representing a ten year old girl throughout her immigration proceedings.,
KIND Blog, May 26, 2011
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Yale Law School
(J.D., 1987)
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Yale University
(M.A., 1984),
National Science Foundation Fellowship
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Princeton University
(A.B., 1981),
Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude
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New York
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District of Columbia
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New Jersey
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U.S. Supreme Court
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U.S. Court of Appeals, First Circuit
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U.S. Court of Appeals, Third Circuit
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U.S. Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit
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U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit
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U.S. Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit
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U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York
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- Huber Foundation, Board Member
- Partners for Women and Justice, Board Member
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