Tova Indritz

Tova is a criminal defense lawyer in private practice and handles federal, state, and Indian tribal criminal trials, appeals, and post-conviction petitions. She has a special interest in the confluence of criminal and immigration law and issues representing non-U.S. citizens and lectures and writes (Cultural Issues in Criminal Defense) on this topic. She represented amicus curiae in State v. Paredez, cited in Padilla v. Kentucky, holding the Sixth Amendment right to effective assistance includes the obligation to determine clients’ citizenship and inform non-citizens of specific immigration consequences of criminal charges.  She co-chairs NACDL’s Immigration Committee.  She was Assistant Federal Public Defender for five years, Federal Public Defender for 13 years, until beginning private practice in 1995.  She won NMCDLA’s highest honor, the Driscoll Award, and Albuquerque Bar Association’s Outstanding Lawyer of the Year.  She holds a J.D. from Yale Law; a Master of Urban and Regional Planning, University of Pittsburgh, and a B.A., Phi Beta Kappa, George Washington University.