Commissioner Alexis Gardner

Ms. Alexis Gardner currently serves as an Assistant Federal Public Defender for the District of Columbia. After law school she joined the Bronx Defenders and moved with them to Tulsa, Oklahoma, starting the first ever public defender’s office dedicated solely to representing women.

The Bronx Defenders opened the sister firm, Still She Rises, to combat Oklahoma’s increasing incarceration rate for women, the highest in the nation. Later, Ms. Gardner launched her own private practice where she maintained a 100% jury trial success rate while still dedicating substantial efforts to indigent defense through accepting conflict appointments in both federal and state court.

Ms. Gardner joined the Federal Public Defender in 2020. When she’s not advocating for the marginalized or traveling the world, she teaches aspiring lawyers at various universities in addition to raising her young son. Ms. Gardner also serves District residents as a Court-Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for Children of DC as well as a mentor with Spark the Journey.

A Ward 6 resident, Ms. Gardner earned both her Bachelor of Arts in Interpersonal Communications and her Master of Arts in Rhetoric for Social Change from California State University, and both her Master of Arts in Afro-American Studies and her Juris Doctor from the University of California Los Angeles.