Jennifer Merrigan is a founding attorney with Phillips Black, a non-profit, public interest organization dedicated to providing the highest standard of representation to individuals facing sentences of death and life without parole throughout the country. For over fifteen years she has provided zealous advocacy in state and federal post-conviction proceedings. She founded a post-conviction clinical practicum at Washington University and teaches clinical intern and extern students around the country. Former attorney and acting director of the Death Penalty Litigation Clinic in Kansas City, Missouri, she helped research and develop the Supplementary Guidelines for the Mitigation Function of Defense Teams in Death Penalty Cases, 36 Hofstra L. Rev. 677 (Spring 2008). She received the 2010 Missouri Association of Criminal Defense Lawyer’s “Atticus Finch Award” for her advocacy and the 2011 Missouri State Fair Blue Ribbon for her fruit pie.
