Jackie Azis joined the staff of the ACLU of Florida in February 2017 as a staff attorney who will focus on criminal justice issues.
Jackie studied journalism at the University of Florida and went to law school at the University of North Carolina School of Law. During law school, Jackie interned with the ACLU of North Carolina and the ACLU-Capital Punishment Project, and served as the ACLU president for the UNC Law chapter. She received the Norman Smith Award from the ACLU of North Carolina for outstanding volunteer work and was inducted into the James E. and Carolyn Davis Society at the UNC School of Law, an honor bestowed upon only eight students from each law graduation class based on academic and personal excellence.
In her final year of law school, Jackie worked for the Orange County (North Carolina) Public Defender’s Office. Before joining the ACLU of Florida, Jackie worked for a civil rights and employment law firm in Peoria, Illinois and then served as an assistant public defender in the Fifth Judicial Circuit of Florida, representing hundreds of clients facing misdemeanor and felony charges. In 2016, the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers presented Jackie with the James T. Miller Scholar award recognizing outstanding young criminal defense lawyers.
