Jim Freeman
Civil Rights Lawyer & DU Law Adjunct Faculty
What I do
Jim Freeman is a racial justice movement lawyer who works with communities of color across the U.S. to address issues of systemic racism and create positive social change. He has supported dozens of grassroots-led efforts to end mass criminalization and incarceration, achieve education equity, dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline, protect immigrants’ rights, and create a more inclusive and participatory democracy. He is the author of Rich Thanks to Racism: How the Ultra-Wealthy Profit from Racial Injustice (Cornell: 2021).
Professional Biography
Freeman was formerly a Senior Attorney at Advancement Project, a national civil rights organization, where he directed the Ending the Schoolhouse-to-Jailhouse Track project. He served under President Obama as a Commissioner on the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans. Freeman is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and Harvard Law School, and was an editor on the Harvard Law Review. He is a former Skadden Fellow, clerked for Judge James R. Browning on the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, and has been an Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center. He currently teaches “Movement Lawyering” and “Supporting Social Movements” at the University of Denver.
