Parliamentarian, New York, NY
Rick Jones is the executive director and a founding member of the Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem (NDS), a community-based, holistic public defense practice. He is a distinguished trial lawyer with more than 20 years experience in complex multi-forum litigation. In addition, Mr. Jones is a lecturer in law at Columbia Law School and on the faculty of the National Criminal Defense College (NCDC) in Macon, Georgia. He is a member of the New York State Bar Association Criminal Justice Section Executive Committee, sits on the boards of the New York State Defenders Association (NYSDA) and the Sirius Foundation, and serves on the Editorial Board of the Amsterdam News.
Mr. Jones is a two term past member of the Board of Directors of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL), and currently serves as Parliamentarian, a non-voting member of the Executive Committee for the 2011-2012 Presidential term. At NACDL, he served as co-chair of both the Indigent Defense Committee and the Special Task Force on Problem-Solving Courts. In September 2009 the Task Force released its critically acclaimed report: America's Problem-Solving Courts: The Criminal Costs of Treatment and the Case for Reform. Mr. Jones 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.