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Rick Jones, Executive Director

Rick Jones is the executive director and a founding member of the Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem (NDS). Rick has more than 20 years experience in complex multi-forum litigation. His current practice focuses on the representation of individuals accused of murder and the collateral consequences of those allegations in family and housing court as well as police abuse and misconduct cases. He has represented artists, musicians, entertainers, athletes, activists and other residents of the Harlem community in state and federal, civil and criminal courtrooms throughout the city. Many of his cases have been widely reported in both print and television news. He was recently successful in securing a high-profile acquittal on all charges in the self-defense stabbing death of a well-known Harlem minister. Among his more notable clients have been an Olympic medal winning athlete, prominent jazz musician, legendary singer, two highly profiled graffiti artists, and a lead singer from the world renowned Boys Choir of Harlem. He is often asked to consult with lawyers throughout the country on complex criminal defense matters.

Rick is also a lecturer in law at Columbia Law School (CLS), where he teaches a criminal defense externship and a trial practice course. In addition to those responsibilities, Rick is a member of the teaching faculty at the National Criminal Defense College (NCDC) in Macon, Georgia and teaches at the Advanced Cross Examination Program in Atlanta, Georgia.

Rick is a two term past member of the Board of Directors of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL), and currently serves as Parlimentarian, a non-voting member of the Executive Committee for the 2011-2012 Presidential term. Previously at NACDL, he served as co-chair of both the Indigent Defense Committee and the Special Task Force on Problem-Solving Courts. In 2009, his committees released two critically acclaimed reports: Minor Crimes, Massive Waste: The Terrible Toll of America's Broken Misdemeanor Courts and America's Problem Solving Courts: The Criminal Costs of Treatment and the Case for Reform. For more information on the NACDL Problem-Solving Courts Task Force, including video excerpts of the nationwide public hearings, click here. Rick currently serves on several NACDL committees, including the newly created Task Force on Restoration of Rights and Status After Conviction, of which he is co-chair and, as such, continues to be involved in the struggle to bring systemic change, fundamental fairness, and equality to the nations' criminal justice systems. 

Rick is an active member of the civic community.  In addition to being a member of the New York State Bar Association Criminal Justice Section Executive Committee, the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, and the National Legal Aid & Defender Association—American Council of Chief Defenders, Rick was also selected to be a Leadership New York Coro Fellow and sat as an expert on the NAACP Legal Defense Fund's yearlong Race and Criminal Justice Reform Initiative. Additionally, Rick serves on the Board of Directors of the Sirius Foundation in New York, the New York State Defenders Association (NYSDA) in Albany, and is an Editorial Board member of the Amsterdam News.

Rick received his BA in English from the University of Michigan, where he was elected to the Michigan Student Assembly, and his JD from Rutgers Law School, where he was a Ralph Johnson Bunche Scholar and won the prestigious Harkavy Prize as the most promising trial lawyer in his graduating class.

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