Jonathan joined Climate Defense Project after five years as a public defender. He began his legal career as a trial lawyer with the Colorado State Public Defender before working in the Appellate and Post-Conviction Division of the Cuyahoga County Public Defender in Cleveland, Ohio.

In law school, Jonathan spent a semester and a summer interning with the Water Protector Legal Collective, helping to defend water protectors targeted by the government for their opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline in both state and federal court. He also interned at state and federal public defender offices, and assisted in post-conviction representation in a capital case as part of Berkeley Law’s Death Penalty Clinic. 

Before law school, Jonathan was part of a prisoner support group in southern West Virginia, assisted in defending against coal industry SLAPP suits targeting frontline resistance to mountaintop removal mining, and participated in various other movements for social and environmental justice.

Jonathan is excited to work with Climate Defense Project to further its goals of providing zealous, creative, movement-oriented, and client-centered legal support to those who need it.