Jalen D. Porter

Jalen D. Porter is an associate in the firm’s Cannabis & Hemp Law, Litigation and Criminal Defense Practice Groups.  

Prior to joining Pashman Stein, Jalen was a staff attorney in the Criminal Defense Practice at The Bronx Defenders, where he engaged in intensive client interviewing, counseling, researching, writing, oral advocacy, and negotiations to help clients avoid or minimize legal or civil repercussions from criminal court system interaction.

Jalen earned his J.D. from Rutgers University Law School, where he served as Vice President of the Association of Black Law Students (ABLS) and staff editor with the Rutgers University Law Review. He was also a student attorney in the Criminal and Youth Justice Clinic representing inmate and youth clients in criminal litigation matters.

In addition, Jalen served as an Ella Baker intern at the law school’s Center for Constitutional Rights focusing on prisoner rights and discriminatory policing, where he researched and prepared legal memoranda analyzing prisoner retaliation claims, compassionate release standards under the First Step Act, and federal standards for confidentiality designations. While in that role, he assisted with the Floyd v. City of New York Joint Remedial Process by researching monitorship reform, compliance issues, and reviewing NYPD body-worn camera videos and racial profiling complaint investigation files.

While interning in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey’s Prisoner Litigation Office, Jalen analyzed dispositive motions and supporting documents of litigants in pro se prisoner habeas appeals and pro se prisoner civil rights actions. He also drafted screening opinions and pro se litigation memoranda.

Jalen also served in Rutgers Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic, where he researched and prepared legal memoranda and assisted with drafting an amicus brief concerning vote-by-mail initiatives in the November 2020 General Election. He spent time as a research assistant to Professors Alexis Karteron and Taja-Nia Henderson as a Sullivan Defender Fellow for the Rutgers Center on Criminal Justice, Youth Rights, and Race, and as a Fellow for The Inclusion Project at Rutgers University.

Prior to law school, Jalen graduated from Arizona State University with a double major in political science and justice studies.