People are often surprised to learn that the ABA Death Penalty Representation Project operates with a small staff of just four, including three attorneys and one administrative professional. The staff members leverage their extensive personal expertise in capital defense and facilitating pro bono teams along with the Project’s nationwide network of pro bono volunteers to recruit and support counsel for hundreds of prisoners facing the death penalty. 2022 has been a year of new beginnings for the Project, with two new staff members joining the team.
Meet the Project Staff
Laura Berg
Laura joined the Death Penalty Representation Project in April 2022, and she is currently a Senior Staff Attorney. She devotes most of her time to assisting death-sentenced prisoners locate pro bono counsel to represent them in their post-conviction litigation. Laura graduated from Yale Law School in 1997 and over the last 20 years has worked at state and federal public defender offices throughout the country, representing clients facing the death penalty in all stages of litigation from arrest through clemency and end-stage litigation. She has represented clients in Georgia, Arizona, Nevada, Mississippi, Delaware, and on federal death row. She has also worked as a capital investigator and mitigation specialist in several states. In addition to her capital defense work, Laura spent two years as a litigator at a large firm in Atlanta and three years teaching Legal Writing and seminars on the Death Penalty and on the Eighth Amendment at Thomas Jefferson School of Law.
Taylor Smith
As an aspiring attorney, Taylor joined the Death Penalty Representation Project in early 2022 committed to capital punishment reform. Taylor is a lifelong human rights activist who has spent time at the UN Human Rights Council. Additionally, she has assisted international attorneys on cases involving Guantanamo Bay detainees, state sponsored attacks on journalists, and crimes against humanity. Prior to moving from Boston, she worked as a Refugee Patient Navigator with the Boston Center for Refugee Health and Human Rights. There she advocated for and assisted asylum seekers who were victims of torture with various immigration needs like food, housing, and medical care. With such dedicated advocacy work in her past, Taylor comes to the ABA prepared and determined to promote equity and fairness in a system filled with biases and injustices.
Taylor has an M.A. in International Law, Terrorism and Security, with a concentration in Human Rights from the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom and a B.A. in Criminal Justice from the University of Massachusetts Boston. Taylor intends on becoming a war crimes and genocide expert and focusing on their prevention and resolution after law school.
When not advocating for the rights of others, Taylor spends her time cycling and playing rugby, finding the best food the area has to offer, and tending to her vast quarantine-acquired plant collection.
Emily Olson-Gault
Emily has served as the Project's Director & Chief Counsel since 2015. She first joined the Project in 2008 as a staff attorney, working with former director Robin Maher. Emily works with civil lawyers and law firms that are interested in pro bono death penalty representation to identify cases in need of assistance and that match the needs and interests of the firm. She also oversees the Project’s systemic reform efforts and serves as a national expert on the ABA Guidelines for the Appointment & Performance of Defense Counsel in Death Penalty Cases. She routinely provides training and technical assistance to capital defenders and pro bono counsel and also assists state agencies and lawmakers with implementing qualification and performance standards for capital defenders. Emily co-teaches a habeas practicum at Georgetown University Law Center. The course introduces students to habeas law and how to address issues such as mass incarceration, systemic racism, and geographic disparity in the American legal system through individual direct representation as well as systemic litigation.
Emily graduated from New York University School of Law in 2006. Prior to joining the Project, she was in private practice, where she began working on death penalty cases as a volunteer lawyer. While in law school she worked on capital habeas cases and represented criminal defendants in federal court through NYU’s clinical programs.