
Abby Lederman
Legal Fellow
Oakland, California
Email Abby
Abby is a legal fellow with Root & Rebound. Through her fellowship, Abby supports formerly incarcerated clients as they seek to rebuild or reconnect with their families. She provides representation and advice in child custody, guardianship, child support, and parenting time matters, as well as mitigation to reshape conviction narratives that arise in clients’ interactions with child protective services. Abby is developing this family law project in collaboration with Partners for Justice, an organization that trains and embeds holistic client advocates within public defenders’ offices.
Abby graduated from NYU School of Law in 2022 where she was a Sinsheimer Service Scholar within the Root-Tilden-Kern program. During law school, Abby interned with Orleans Public Defenders and Legal Aid Chicago and participated in NYU’s Family Defense Clinic. Prior to law school, Abby worked as a family advocate at the Center for Family Representation where she provided wraparound support to parents facing charges of neglect and abuse. Abby grew up in Maryland and received her BA in philosophy and psychology from Cornell University. In her free time, Abby enjoys baking, making music, and adjusting her East Coast eyes to California sunshine and natural beauty.
Abby Lederman
Legal Fellow
Oakland, California
Email Abby
Abby is a legal fellow with Root & Rebound. Through her fellowship, Abby supports formerly incarcerated clients as they seek to rebuild or reconnect with their families. She provides representation and advice in child custody, guardianship, child support, and parenting time matters, as well as mitigation to reshape conviction narratives that arise in clients’ interactions with child protective services. Abby is developing this family law project in collaboration with Partners for Justice, an organization that trains and embeds holistic client advocates within public defenders’ offices.
Abby graduated from NYU School of Law in 2022 where she was a Sinsheimer Service Scholar within the Root-Tilden-Kern program. During law school, Abby interned with Orleans Public Defenders and Legal Aid Chicago and participated in NYU’s Family Defense Clinic. Prior to law school, Abby worked as a family advocate at the Center for Family Representation where she provided wraparound support to parents facing charges of neglect and abuse. Abby grew up in Maryland and received her BA in philosophy and psychology from Cornell University. In her free time, Abby enjoys baking, making music, and adjusting her East Coast eyes to California sunshine and natural beauty.
Why do you come to work at Root & Rebound every day?
I come to work at R & R every day because people need to have access to family as they heal from the harms of incarceration. Family is treated as a basic right for some and a privilege for others; mass incarceration and state family separation are intersecting, oppressive systems of surveillance. This project allows me to contribute to R & R’s work of clearing obstacles so that impacted folks can move forward with the dignity and humanity these systems are designed to deny.

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