Alison Bernstein has been a criminal defense attorney for over twenty years. She began her criminal defense career as a mitigation investigator at the California Appellate Project. She spent over a decade as a trial attorney at the San Francisco Office of the Public Defender, where she tried cases ranging from drunk driving to homicide. For the last fourteen years she has been at the Office of the State Public Defender, where she represents capitally sentenced men and women in both direct appeal and state habeas proceedings. Ms. Bernstein is very active in issues relating to criminal justice reform. She is a member of the Board of Governors of the California Attorneys for Criminal Justice, where she focuses on legislative reform. She is the former chair and is a current commissioner on the Berkeley Police Review Commission.
Education
J.D., Hastings College of the Law
B.A., Wesleyan University
Alison Bernstein is not teaching any Law courses in Fall 2024.