CCJ Directory

Ofer is the founding Director of the Policy Advocacy Clinic at Princeton University, a highly intensive one-year program that immerses students in the policymaking process. His primary research areas include studying the problem of mass incarceration and devising bipartisan solutions to safely reduce incarceration while advancing equity. He teaches courses on civil rights, policing, criminal justice reform and policy advocacy. He is also Chair of the International Advisory Council of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel.

Ofer has more than 20 years of experience as a civil rights lawyer working on issues related to criminal justice reform, national security, free speech and racial justice. For two decades, Ofer worked as an attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), where he helped to transform the organization, expanding its work into new issue areas and tactics. Ofer’s work has led to passage of hundreds of laws and policies across the nation.

From 2016-2022, Ofer was the Deputy National Political Director of the ACLU and the founding Director of the ACLU’s Justice Division, leading the ACLU’s advocacy on criminal justice reform, including before the White House and Congress, and securing policy victories in states across the nation, including in Oklahoma, Louisiana, Michigan, and more. He is best known for building the ACLU’s Campaign for Smart Justice, an unprecedented 50-state strategy to end mass incarceration.

From 2013-2016, Ofer served as Executive Director of the ACLU of New Jersey. Under his leadership the organization achieved historic victories on a range of issues, including overhauling New Jersey’s broken cash bail system, launching a successful bipartisan campaign to legalize marijuana, winning in-state tuition for undocumented immigrants, prohibiting local police from enforcing federal immigration laws, launching a campaign for marriage equality, and creating one of the nation’s strongest Civilian Complaint Review Boards in Newark.

Ofer is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Distinguished Graduate Award from Fordham Law School, a presidential award from the Open Society Foundations, and a proclamation from the New York City Council for his contributions to the city and state. His work and research have been cited in court opinions across the nation and in more than 100 law review articles.