Washington, DC (August 12, 2014) –  New York attorney Melinda Sarafa was sworn in to the Board of Directors of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) at the Association’s 57th annual meeting in Philadelphia on August 2.

This July, Sarafa began a position as Associate General Counsel at Select Equity Group, L.P. Prior to joining Select Equity, Sarafa maintained her own legal practice, Sarafa Law LLC, focusing on the defense of individuals and businesses in criminal investigations and prosecutions. Before founding Sarafa Law in 2006, Sarafa was a partner at Zuckerman Spaeder LLC, a prominent white collar litigation firm. Sarafa began her defense practice as an Assistant Federal Public Defender in Houston, Texas, after serving as a law clerk to two federal judges. She regularly teaches a criminal law seminar at the Cornell University Summer Pre-Law Program and volunteers as an instructor in Cardozo Law School’s Intensive Trial Advocacy Program.

Sarafa is a member of the Advisory Committee for the White Collar Criminal Defense College at Stetson, which she has been involved with since its inception. Beginning in 2012, she helped organize a series of events designed to recruit and retain women members, and in 2013 she became Co-Chair of the Women's Initiative of the Membership Committee.

Sarafa has been a member of NACDL since she began practicing law in 1997 and she became a Life Member in 2003. Sarafa first became a member of NACDL’s Board of Directors in 2011 and is actively involved in the White Collar, Membership and National Security Committees.

She received her A.B. summa cum laude from Princeton University in 1989 and her J.D. with distinction from Stanford Law School in 1995, where she was Senior Article Editor of the Stanford Law Review.

Contacts

Ivan Dominguez, NACDL Senior Director of Public Affairs and Communications, (202) 465-7662 or idominguez@nacdl.org

The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers is the preeminent organization advancing the mission of the criminal defense bar to ensure justice and due process for persons accused of crime or wrongdoing. A professional bar association founded in 1958, NACDL's many thousands of direct members in 28 countries – and 90 state, provincial and local affiliate organizations totaling up to 40,000 attorneys – include private criminal defense lawyers, public defenders, military defense counsel, law professors and judges committed to preserving fairness and promoting a rational and humane criminal justice system.