Aliza Shatzman, President and Founder

Aliza Shatzman is an attorney and advocate based in Washington, DC who writes and speaks about judicial accountability, clerkships, and diversity in the courts. Aliza earned her BA from Williams College in Williamstown, MA in 2013 and her JD from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law (WashU Law) in St. Louis, MO in 2019. At WashU Law, Aliza was an Associate Editor for the Journal of Law & Policy. During law school, Aliza interned at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in the Office of Vaccine Litigation; the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Illinois; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and the Counterterrorism Section of the National Security Division. Following law school, Aliza clerked in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia (D.C. Superior Court) during the 2019-2020 term.  

In March 2022, Aliza submitted written testimony for a House Judiciary Subcommittee hearing about the lack of workplace protections for federal judiciary employees, explaining how she was harassed, terminated, and retaliated against by a former D.C. Superior Court judge. The intent of Aliza’s testimony was to advocate for the Judiciary Accountability Act, legislation that would extend workplace anti-discrimination protections to more than 30,000 federal judiciary employees.

Aliza has also testified before the D.C. Council Committee on the Judiciary & Public Safety about the lack of workplace protections and effective complaint mechanisms for D.C. Courts employees. She is a regular speaker at law school and bar association events, a recognized subject matter expert on judicial accountability, and a frequent podcast guest. She has been quoted in The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, Law360, and Bloomberg Law, among others.

Aliza’s writing on the subject of judicial accountability has been published in numerous law journals and mainstream publications, including the Columbia Law Review, Harvard Journal on Legislation, Yale Law & Policy Review, UCLA Journal of Gender & Law, Administrative Law Review, NYU Journal of Legislation & Public Policy, Law360, MSNBC, Bloomberg Law, Above the Law, Slate, Ms. Magazine, and Balls and Strikes. Aliza is also an Above the Law columnist.

Aliza is the winner of the 2024 American Legal Technology Awards in both the Individual and Courts categories; the 2023 Fire Starter Award from the New York City Bar Association’s Office for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging; and the 2024 NAWL Rising List.

Reach out to Aliza via email at Aliza.Shatzman@legalaccountabilityproject.org, follow her on Twitter at @AlizaShatzman, and connect with her on LinkedIn.