Mentor Leane Renee

Leane is the Chief of the Capital Habeas Unit for the Middle District of Pennsylvania Federal Public Defender. She supervises attorneys and core staff using an interdisciplinary team approach to incorporate clients, attorneys, paralegals, investigators, and experts in representation of state and federal death-sentenced prisoners in federal habeas corpus proceedings. Prior to entering federal service in 2016, Leane represented clients in a variety of state Public Defender offices. As a trial attorney in the NYC Legal Aid Society’s Manhattan Criminal Defense Division, she represented nearly 2,500 clients. Next, as a trial attorney in a small rural Public Defender office in California, she became a founding member of one of the state’s very first Mental Health Court programs in 2002. She later managed the legal services division of a nonprofit organization as well as her own private practice which focused on criminal, juvenile, child welfare, family law, and mental health litigation in several rural Northern California counties. Leane also served as Mitigation and Policy Director on the leadership team for the Montgomery County Public Defender in Pennsylvania, where she conducted extensive public outreach and in-house training to develop a client-centered holistic representation model, supervised law student externships and a weekly expungement clinic, provided motivational presentations to diverse stakeholders on justice reform initiatives, and served on local and national justice committees to launch programs addressing disproportionate minority contact.