Ranit Patel

Staff Attorney

Ranit joins NCLEJ as a staff attorney having previously served as an Equal Justice Works Fellow, sponsored by the Venture Justice Fund, with The Bronx Defenders, where she represented clients facing unaffordable and predatory fines, fees, and mandatory surcharges. Ranit helped spearhead the Driven by Justice campaign to end debt-based driver’s license suspensions in New York and was instrumental in the passing and implementation of the Driver’s License Suspension Reform Act, which went into full effect on June 29, 2021. 

Ranit joined the Criminal Justice Policy Program (CJPP) at Harvard Law School where she worked with judges in North Carolina, Arkansas, and Arizona to more equitably impose and enforce criminal legal debt. Ranit also clerked for Judge Alvin Thompson of the United States District Court, District of Connecticut. Prior to law school, Ranit worked as a paralegal in the ACLU’s Racial Justice Program.

Ranit graduated from New York University School of Law in 2017 and Wellesley College in 2011.