Margot Mendelson
Executive Director

Margot joined the Prison Law Office as a staff attorney in 2016 and has served as Executive Director since 2023. She previously served as Legal Director. Her work focuses on improving conditions of confinement and protecting the rights of people who are incarcerated or detained. She has extensive experience in class action litigation and in negotiating, implementing, and enforcing consent decrees and other forms of institutional reform. She has worked on a broad range of issues related to carceral confinement, including access to health care, disability rights, use of force, staff misconduct, and conditions in prisons, jails, and immigration detention centers.

A central focus of Margot’s work has been ending the use of solitary confinement through litigation, legislative advocacy, and technical assistance. She has spoken on issues related to ICE detention, mental health care in carceral settings, and the use of solitary confinement. She has testified before the California State Legislature about the widespread use of solitary confinement in the state and its devastating effects on individuals, families, and communities.

Before joining the Prison Law Office, Margot was an attorney at Rosen Bien Galvan & Grunfeld, where she practiced complex civil litigation in state and federal courts at both the trial and appellate levels, with a focus on civil rights. She was also an Arthur Liman Public Interest Fellow, representing immigrants detained in Southern Arizona. Earlier in her career, she clerked for Judge Diana G. Motz of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and Judge Catherine Blake of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland.

Margot received her J.D. from Yale Law School in 2009 and her B.A. from Harvard College. She serves on the board of Immigrant Legal Defense, based in Oakland, California.