Our Staff

Julie (she/her/hers) received her law degree from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, where she was a David Berg Public Interest Fellow, a staff editor for the Cardozo Journal of Law and Gender, and a member of the Cardozo Trial Team. During her second year of law school, she was a clinical student with The Bronx Defenders in the Family Defense Practice and spent the following summer as an intern in the Family Defense Practice at Brooklyn Defender Services. In her final year of law school, Julie was a student attorney with the Cardozo Criminal Defense Clinic, where she represented indigent clients in Manhattan Criminal Court from case inception to final disposition. Prior to joining The Bronx Defenders, she served as a judicial law clerk to a Judge of the Superior Court of New Jersey on both the trial and appellate levels. Julie holds a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from Lafayette College.

Ariana Brill (she/her/hers)  earned her B.A. from New York University and her J.D. from Penn Law, where she was a Levy Scholar and graduated magna cum laude. During law school, she completed internships at the Federal Community Defender for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Legal Aid Society’s Criminal Defense Practice, Youth Sentencing & Reentry Project, and Juvenile Law Center. Prior to joining the Bronx Defenders, she worked at the Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem (NDS) where she worked as an Equal Justice Works fellow in the Criminal Defense Practice, and then worked as an Education Attorney across all practices.

Emma Connolly (she/her/hers) comes to Bronx Defenders from Project Guardianship, where she worked on behalf of incapacitated New Yorkers. She previously worked as a staff attorney in the Family Defense Practice of Bronx Defenders. She is a graduate of UC-Berkeley School of Law.

Juliet (she/her/hers) is committed to human rights, public service, and reproductive justice. She has worked for New York based institutions like Planned Parenthood Federation of America, The Center for Reproductive Rights, National Network for Safe Communities, Parole Preparation Project, and the City Commission on Human Rights. She is a proud member of the Family Defense Practice where she works to support her home community of The Bronx.

Janae Hunte (she/her/hers) received her J.D. from Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, where she was the recipient of the David Berg Public Interest Fellowship and the Jacob Burns Medal for outstanding academic and professional achievements. While at Cardozo, she was the Editor-in-Chief of the Cardozo Journal of Law & Gender and the Treasurer for the Black Law Students Association. Additionally, Janae participated in the Mainzer Family Defense Clinic at The Bronx Defenders. Janae spent her summer internships at The Bronx Defenders Family Defense Practice and Manhattan Legal Services. Upon graduating from law school, she worked as a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Bruce J. Kaplan, J.S.C. at the Middlesex County Superior Court-Family Division, where her work focused on child abuse and neglect, juvenile detention, guardianship, and children-in-crisis cases. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan with a B.A. in Psychology and a minor in Community Action and Social Change.