OPD is proud to announce the selection of Staff Attorney Meghan Garvey as a recipient of the 2021 CityBusiness Leader in Law. Garvey, one of two court-appointed honorees, is among 50 of New Orleans’ top legal professionals recognized for moving the legal community forward with energy, innovative ideas, achievements and a commitment to excellence.
For more than 15 years, Garvey has fought for fairness, understanding, justice, and the constitution. Post-Katrina, she was part of a small team of attorneys and advocates who worked tirelessly to locate the hundreds of incarcerated people scattered across Louisiana after the failure of the levees and the Orleans Parish Prison flooded. She then joined the push to reform New Orleans’ long criticized public defender office, introducing a level of representation and fighting against a system that had for decades, diminished the need for dedicated and meaningful public defense in New Orleans.
Garvey’s recent advocacy addressed issues of funding and parity for public defense, abolishing the criminalization of poverty, and ending Louisiana’s unjust and excessive pretrial acceptance time.
In the early months of the COVID19 pandemic, the public defender system was staring down a fiscal crisis, brought by Louisiana’s user-pay justice system, and exacerbated by the economic crisis of the pandemic. Because of Garvey’s work the Legislature, emergency supplemental funding of $7 million was provided to public defense, preventing a further constitutional crisis in representation.
During 2021’s legislative session, Garvey joined Representative Ted James and other advocates to bring change to Louisiana’s speedy trial statutes. Louisiana has an inordinately long 701 date, where the district attorney has anywhere from 30 – 120 days to accept a case. In that time, people must wait in limbo until their cases are accepted or refused. If they can’t afford bail (even as nominal as $50 or $100), they remain incarcerated. Jobs are lost, homes are evicted, and families are negatively affected. In contrast, New York must accept a case within 72 hours. The collateral consequences remain substantial. As of now, the bill is still active in the legislature.
With the selection of New Orleans as a MacArthur Safety and Justice Challenge site, Garvey was instrumental in the creation of OPD’s Pretrial Advocacy team and Bond Project. Now in its fourth year, the Bond team advocates for incarceration alternatives and other solutions to New Orleans’ pretrial incarceration crisis.
Prior to returning to OPD, Garvey served as the Managing Director of the Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights where she headed the statewide Raise the Age campaign to include 17 year-olds in the juvenile justice system and bring Louisiana in line with most other states. Because of the advocacy of young people and supporters across the state, the bill was included in Governor Edwards’ legislative package in 2016 and received rare bipartisan backing. The bill finally went into effect in March of 2019.
Additionally, Garvey’s work with the Louisiana Association of Criminal Defendants earned her the 2019 prestigious Justice Albert Tate Award, the organization’s highest honor for outstanding contributions to the Louisiana system of criminal justice and constitutional principles. Throughout her career, Garvey has stood next to thousands of clients, adults and children, as they faced a criminal legal system that criminalizes poverty, dismisses trauma, and marginalizes people and communities of color.
