Nate Mensah

Nate Mensah leads the firm’s Washington, D.C.-based pro bono criminal defense program. In this role, Nate co-counsels criminal defense cases with other firm lawyers on behalf of indigent clients and is responsible for providing in-house trial advocacy training.

Nate brings nearly a decade of criminal defense trial experience to the firm. Before entering private practice, Nate spent three years as a faculty member at Georgetown Law School where he taught and supervised in the Criminal and Juvenile Justice Clinics. He spent his last year as Acting Director of the Criminal Defense & Prisoner Advocacy Clinic.

Nate started his career as an E. Barrett Prettyman Fellow at Georgetown Law’s Criminal and Juvenile Justice Clinics before joining the D.C. Public Defender Service (PDS) as a trial attorney. At PDS Nate represented both adults and juveniles charged with serious felony offenses in D.C. Superior Court. While there he gained significant trial experience representing clients in complex cases, including homicide, robbery, drug distribution, and other armed offenses. Nate was also involved in special litigation initiatives at PDS regarding forensic issues, competency, the insanity defense, police misconduct, and fair cross section jury selection issues. In addition, he has worked on post-conviction issues, including compassionate release, Due Process sentencing challenges, and juvenile resentencing hearings.

Nate teaches at Harvard Law’s Trial Advocacy Workshop, and continues to teach and train the Prettyman Fellows at Georgetown Law School.