Twyla Carter is the Attorney-in-Chief and Chief Executive Officer of The Legal Aid Society. She is the first Black woman and first Asian-American to lead the organization in its 147-year history. Prior to joining Legal Aid, Carter was the National Director of Legal and Policy at The Bail Project and spent 10 years as a public defender. She received an associate degree from Seattle Central Community College, a bachelor’s degree from Seattle University, summa cum laude, and a J.D. from the Seattle University School of Law.
The Legal Aid Society handles nearly 200,000 individual legal matters every year. We work in all five boroughs, and what is often a surprise to people is that we help people not only in criminal matters but in about 20 different civil lanes everything from immigration to tax to public benefits to employment. We work not just in the criminal and civil parts but in juvenile and family courts as well. Much of our public defense work—and especially our juvenile family work —is constitutionally mandated.
