Gráinne O’Neill is a staff attorney at the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute at Harvard Law School. She directs the institute’s Gideon Project, creating computer resources for indigent defense attorneys nationwide.

Gráinne also coordinates the institute’s Faith Rising outreach initiative, working to empower clergy members of color to address the economic consequences of the criminal justice system, with a focus on the death penalty.

Before joining the Houston Institute, Gráinne worked at the Orleans Public Defenders office where, after managing a caseload of 250 felonies, she became Director of Legal Systems and Technology, developing new tools to enhance the performance of her fellow attorneys. The systems she developed streamlined the way case management is handled in New Orleans and became a pilot for the Gideon Project.

Gráinne is a graduate of the Southern Public Defender Training Center. She received her JD from Columbia University School of Law where she was the Executive Editor of the Jailhouse Lawyers Manual/ Human Rights Law Review. As an undergraduate student she attended Cornell University and received her BA in Mathematics and Computer Science.

Gráinne can be reached at northeastrvp@nlg.org.