Jeffery Robinson is the founder and chief executive officer of The Who We Are Project, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization focused on correcting the narrative of our shared history. The current narrative about the impact of anti-Black racism and white supremacy on the United States’ social, legal, political, and economic systems is based on a “re-telling” of history that is incomplete, inaccurate, and misleading. The Who We Are Project will correct this false narrative by providing objective and true accounts. Reckoning with our true history is the only way for our country to move towards a path of racial equity and justice.  

Since graduating from Harvard Law School in 1981, Jeffery has four decades of experience working on criminal and racial justice issues. Initially, he represented indigent clients in state court at The Defender Association and then in federal court at the Federal Public Defender’s Office in Seattle. In 1988, Jeffery began a 27-year private practice at Schroeter, Goldmark & Bender, also in Seattle, where he represented a broad range of clients in local, state, and federal courts on charges ranging from shoplifting to securities fraud and first-degree murder. He has tried over 200 criminal cases to verdict and has tried more than a dozen civil cases representing plaintiffs suing corporate and government entities. Jeffery was one of the original members of the John Adams Project and worked on the behalf of one of five men held at Guantanamo Bay charged with carrying out the 9/11 attacks. In 2015, Jeffery left private practice to become one of the ACLU National Office’s Deputy Legal Directors and the Director of the ACLU’s Trone Center for Justice and Equality. After six years at the ACLU, he left and launched The Who We Are Project.  

Jeffery continues to be a nationally recognized trial attorney and respected teacher of trial advocacy. He is a faculty member of the National Criminal Defense College and has lectured on trial skills all over the United States. He is past president of the Washington Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and a past member of the board of directors and life member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. Jeffery is also an elected fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. 

For over twelve years, he has been speaking to diverse audiences across the country on the role of race in the criminal justice system and the history of anti-Black racism in the United States. One of Jeffery’s groundbreaking presentations forms the basis of the feature-length documentary entitled “Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America” (available on Netflix, Amazon Prime, and other platforms). The film and other creations help meet the education goals of The Who We Are Project.