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Jennifer Sellitti
United States
Public Defender
Biography
Jennifer Sellitti was sworn in as New Jersey’s Public Defender on 1 February 2024, following her appointment by Governor Phil Murphy and confirmation by the State Senate. Before assuming this role, she served as Director of Training for the Office of the Public Defender (OPD), where she oversaw professional development for attorneys across the state. Her earlier positions at OPD included Deputy of the Middlesex Trial Region and Assistant Deputy Public Defender in the Essex County Adult Region.
Jennifer began her legal career with Massachusetts Correctional Legal Services, working on the Prison Brutality Project and representing incarcerated individuals in solitary confinement in civil rights litigation. She later clerked for the Massachusetts Superior Court and served as a staff attorney with the Committee for Public Counsel Services. Prior to entering the legal field, she had a successful career in marketing and public relations.
A respected voice in legal education, Jennifer has trained lawyers in over thirty-five U.S. states and speaks nationally on reforming and strengthening public defence systems. She is a trustee of the Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers of New Jersey, and a member of both the New Jersey State Bar and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. She holds a law degree from Suffolk University and a Bachelor’s in Public Relations from Boston University.
Beyond the courtroom, Jennifer is a licensed U.S. Coast Guard boat captain and operates the D/V Tenacious, a dive vessel dedicated to locating and recovering historical artefacts from shipwrecks in the North Atlantic.
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