Kara O'Brien '18

Professor Kara O'Brien is a Deputy Public Defender with the Los Angeles County Public Defender's office where she represents indigent and marginalized people seeking to invoke and protect their constitutional rights and protections throughout the criminal court process. She has jury trial experience and provides legal consultation and advice in complex misdemeanor and felony cases.

Prior to joining the Los Angeles County Public Defender's office, Professor O'Brien represented clients in immigration proceedings as an attorney at the Coalition to Abolish Slavery & Trafficking where she worked closely with human trafficking survivors. She was also a recipient of an Equal Justice Works Fellowship where she provided direct legal representation to low-income veterans.

Professor O'Brien graduated with a Dean's Merit Scholarship in 2018. While attending law school, she was the Chair of the Moot Court Honors Program, selected to argue before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals through the Appellate Litigation Clinic, she served on the Board of the Women's Law Association and Teen Court, where she volunteered frequently at Teen Court meeting in local high schools. Professor O'Brien also participated in the Immigration Law Clinic and Public Interest Law Committee, as well as the International Human Rights Law Seminar class where she published a piece in 2022: The International Aid Workers' Dilemma: Navigating The Gray Area Between International Law and Cultural Relativism In Response To Female Genital Cutting.

Before law school, Professor O'Brien served in the United States Peace Corps in Burkina Faso where she was a health volunteer and President of the Gender and Development Committee. She graduated from San Francisco State University with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and where she was member of the award-winning National Policy Debate Team. She also has her Girl Scouts Gold Award for community service.