CCJ Directory

Twyla Carter is the attorney-in-chief and CEO of the Legal Aid Society, making her the first Black woman and first Asian American to lead the organization in its nearly 150-year history. Prior to joining Legal Aid, Carter was the national director of legal and policy at The Bail Project, a nonprofit organization that pioneered a national movement to bring free bail assistance and pretrial support to thousands of low-income people every year. Carter has also served as a senior staff attorney in the Criminal Law Reform Project at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) national office, where she litigated local and state bail inequities and right-to-counsel protections in the federal courts and designed alternative bail and representation policies and procedures for targeted jurisdictions. In this role, Carter litigated Booth v. Galveston County, a pretrial bail case in Texas, where the magistrate court held that people accused of crimes have a right to counsel in initial bail hearings under the Sixth Amendment. The ruling made Galveston County one of the only jurisdictions in the nation to guarantee legal representation at this critical stage of trial.

Prior to working at the ACLU, Carter spent ten years as a public defender. She was misdemeanor practice director for the King County Department of Public Defense in Seattle and staff attorney at The Defender Association. She won a published decision from the Washington State Court of Appeals, Division One, in State v. Green, which affirmed the due process rights of parents accused of trespassing in public schools.

Carter serves as vice president of the board of directors of The Who We Are Project. She also serves as a board member for the NAPD Fund for Justice, which works to enhance the right to counsel through public defense. She is admitted to practice law in New York, Washington State, and numerous federal courts. Carter received an associate degree from Seattle Central Community College; a bachelor’s degree from Seattle University, summa cum laude; and a J.D. from the Seattle University School of Law.