Counsel

Deborah I. Francois joined the firm in 2020 after beginning her legal career in the Litigation Department of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP and completing a clerkship in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Deborah and her colleagues at Cleary successfully overturned the conviction of Clifford Jones, a wrongfully convicted man who spent 29 years in prison before being freed in 2016 when DNA evidence proved his innocence. Deborah continues to focus on wrongful conviction cases, including the exonerations of Muhammad A. Aziz and Khalil Islam (the two men wrongfully convicted of killing Malcolm X) in 2021 and James Irons (wrongfully convicted in the infamous “Money Train” case) in 2022.

Deborah has extensive trial and appellate experience in a variety of civil rights matters, including wrongful convictions, police misconduct, and discrimination cases.

Education

Yale Law School, JD, 2014

Macaulay Honors College at Hunter College, BA, summa cum laude, 2010

Professional Activities

Law Clerk, The Honorable George B. Daniels, United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, 2019-2020

Recognition

Editor-in-Chief, The Yale Journal of International Law

Yale Law School: Khosla Memorial Fund for Human Dignity Prize

Macaulay Honors College at Hunter College: Highest Honors; Phi Beta Kappa

Court Admissions

United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit

United States District Courts for the Eastern and Southern Districts of New York

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Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

DEBORAH I. FRANCOIS