Gail Gray, Esq. is an experienced criminal defense attorney, dedicated advocate for criminal justice reform, and former clinical law instructor. She has utilized the courtroom, the classroom, and the boardroom in the service of justice.

Prior to entering private practice over twenty years ago, she served as a senior trial attorney with the Criminal Defense Division of the Legal Aid Society, where observations of racial disparity shaped her determination to practice at the intersection of law, public policy, and public discourse. For over a decade, she served as co-director, clinical law instructor, and supervising attorney of the Criminal Defender Clinic of the City University of New York School of Law, where she was honored as the first recipient of the annual Haywood Burns & Shanara Gilbert Award and first clinical law instructor recognized as Professor of the Year.

In 2010, she was nominated by the NYS Senate and appointed by the former NYS Governor to the inaugural board of the Office of Indigent Legal Services. There, she was privileged to work with the former Chief Judge of the State and other board members to accomplish the legislative mandate to “monitor, study and make efforts to improve the quality of [legal] services provided” to indigent New Yorkers.

Currently, she supports and empowers the families of incarcerated persons through her work as an active advisory board member of the Alliance of Families for Justice (AFJ). She also serves as Vice President of Advocacy on the Board of Directors of the United Nations Association of Southern New York (UNA-SNY), where she explores and engages global platforms and global allies for achieving universal justice goals.