Ilana Friedman, JD

Professor Ilana Friedman received her Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Texas at Austin, a J.D. from the Saint Louis University School of Law, and an M.A. (awarded with distinction) from Saint Louis University. She brings expertise in civil rights and criminal defense litigation to questions at the intersection of law and society. 

In her research, Professor Friedman studies the occupation of American policing and analyzes legal professionals' discretionary decision-making practices. Her dissertation, "The Rarity of Police Prosecution: Prosecutors, the Law, and Police Misconduct," draws on in-depth interviews with civilians and legal professionals working in the domain of police suspect investigations and prosecutions to better understand the legal processes alongside the organizational structures involved with the investigation and prosecution of police misconduct.

At UT-Austin, Professor Friedman served as co-coordinator of the Crime, Law, and Deviance working group, was a fellow of the Urban Ethnography Lab, and a graduate affiliate of the Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice. 

Professor Friedman has professional legal experience as a staff associate at the Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights where she worked on the Police Accountability Project, and at the law firm of Schwartz, Herman, and Davidson, specializing in federal criminal defense and civil rights litigation.

She is a graduate of University of Wisconsin-Madison (BA-History) where she was a member of the Varsity Division I Women's Hockey team.