Sr. Advocate

Bahar (she/her/hers) is a human rights and criminal defense lawyer and the Director of Legal Advocacy at the Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide. For three years, she taught the Pretrial Justice Clinic at UCLA School of Law. She has collaborated with a range of human rights organizations including the Georgia Capital Defender Office, the Southern Africa Litigation Centre, and Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association. She serves on both the Racial Justice Committee and the Education Committee of the National Association for Public Defense. As Program Director, at The International Legal Foundation, she worked with lawyers in the MENA region on access to justice, human rights, and high quality public defense. 

She has spent over fifteen years in indigent defense, in New York and California, first through The Legal Aid Society of New York, as a public defender in Brooklyn and as a Criminal-Immigration Staff Attorney representing non-citizens, conducting select post-conviction advocacy, and advising criminal defense attorneys across New York City. As a Legal Specialist for the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative, she oversaw a legal education program for Palestinian law students across the West Bank. She has mentored/trained hundreds of law students and lawyers in Palestine, Tunisia, Afghanistan and the United States. 

Bahar received her B.A. degree with Honors from the University of California at Berkeley and in 2007, she earned her J.D. from the City University of New York School of Law. 

She is an inaugural member and Senior Advocate with The Color of Excellence. She became a member of the Board of Directors in MY2024.

COE AWARDS & HONORS

• Member Speaker/Panelist of the Year (MY2023)

• Programming Event of the Year (Advocacy Without Borders) (MY2023)

• Member Speaker of the Year (MY2024)

• Best Socially Conscious Programming Event of the Year (Advocacy Without Borders II) (lead) (MY2024)

Jr. Advocate

NEGEEN (she/her/ hers) is a Housing Rights Supervising Attorney based in Los Angeles, CA working for Community Legal Aid of SoCal. Negeen currently serves as the Secretary for the Iranian American Democrats of California and a Director on the Board of Directors for the Color of Excellence. She is also a dedicated volunteer for the Iranian American Women Foundation, where she first began her community involvement over 10 years ago.

During her law school career Negeen served as the Chairwoman of the American Bar Association's Law Student Division where she represented thousands of law students to the greater American Bar Association. Negeen graduated from American University's Washington College of Law (AUWCL). At AUWCL, she was a member of WCL's Mock Trial Honor Society and a student attorney for the Criminal Defense Clinic.

Negeen received her B.A. in Political Science from UCLA. Upon attending UCLA, Negeen was highly involved in student government representing UCLA in state-wide and nation-wide conferences; further, she was elected UCLA’s first ever Transfer Student Representative for the Undergraduate Student Association Council. After graduating, Negeen was a fellow for People for the American Way's "Young People For" program, where she researched socio-economic status, political impact, and tactics for empowerment of Middle Easterners in the United States.

Negeen has presented at numerous conferences on education and international relations. Her analysis on feminism, education policy, race relations, and international affairs have been featured on Washington Post, Manoto TV, Mic, KIRN 670 radio, FEM Newsmagazine, ABC’s Nightline, BBC World Service's Newsday, and Al Jazeera America.

Negeen is an inaugural member of COE and started as the Regional Advisor - West (MY2021). In December 2021, Negeen was nominated and unanimously voted to member of the Board of Directors. In her role on the BOD, she ileads the Interview & Recruitment Panel and manages membership retention.

COE AWARDS & HONORS

COE Excel! Magazine’s Article of the Year , Recipient (MY2022)

Beast of The Advocacy Battle, Recipient (MY2021)

Jr. Advocate of the Year, Recipient (MY2021, MY2022, MY2023, & MY2024)

Social Activism & Outreach Committee, Co-Chair (MY2021)

Advocate

RYAN (he/his) is a career prosecutor and has been a trial attorney with the Department of Justice’s Consumer Protection Branch (CPB) since 2020. Ryan prosecutes complex transnational and multi-jurisdictional consumer fraud, specifically schemes that target elderly and vulnerable Americans. Ryan also enforces provisions of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, and as a member of CPB’s opioid enforcement team, prosecutes violations of the Controlled Substances Act.

Ryan began his career as an Assistant District Attorney at the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. There he spent nearly four years investigating and trying a wide range of misdemeanor and felony cases in the trial division. He also served as Attorney in Charge of the District Attorney’s High School Internship Program.

In 2016, Ryan joined the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia as an Assistant United States Attorney. As an AUSA, Ryan rotated through the Appellate Division, where he defended convictions obtained in the District of Columbia Superior Court. Ryan was then assigned to the Felony Major Crimes section where he specialized in prosecuting violent crimes at the local level.

Ryan received his B.A. in Political Science from the University of Michigan in 2009. He received his J.D., cum laude, from AUWCL in 2012, where he was a recipient of the Dean’s Award for Professional Responsibility and Mooers Trophy for Outstanding Achievement in Trial Advocacy. In 2018, Ryan returned to AUWCL as an Adjunct Professor teaching Introduction to Courts and Law for the Online Master of Legal Studies Program.

Ryan was appointed to the Board of Directors at its inception in 2020. Ryan is the co-chair of COE’s Mentorship, Training, and Partnerships Committee.

COE AWARDS & HONORS

• COE Excel! Magazine Article of Impact (Member), Recipient (MY2021)

• Advocate of the Year, Recipient (MY2021) (MY2022) (MY2023) (MY2024 - tie)