Jenipher R. Jones is joining Darren O'Connor as Partner! Jenipher primarily handles civil rights litigation, including but not limited to, employment discrimination, prisoners’ rights, and law enforcement misconduct. Jenipher also manages The LEVITATE. Institute for Well-Being, Social Awareness, and Servant Leadership, an endeavor aimed at promoting the positive emotional well-being and growth of law students, lawyers, and society at large via trainings, talks, transformative experiential opportunities, and cultivation of culture. This groundbreaking work includes work as an Advisor to Journey Space and the exploration of ancestral healing and medicine as a human right.
With Jenipher’s addition, the firm name is changing to O’Connor Jones: A People’s Law Office, LLC. Jenipher expands the firm's capacity and capabilities, bringing a unique skill set and passion for justice.
Jenipher graduated from, HBCU, Bennett College for Women with a B.A. in Political Science with honors. She then attended law school at Loyola University New Orleans College of Law with membership to the Loyola Maritime Journal Law Journal, The International Legal Honor Society of Phi Delta Phi, and clinical study. Jenipher began her career in civil and human rights as a Fellow at the Albert Schweitzer Fellowship of Harvard University at the Southern Poverty Law Center. Jenipher has worked on law enforcement accountability issues, including a clerkship at the civilian law enforcement oversight agency, the City of New Orleans Office of the Independent Police Monitor (OIPM), and a landmark federal consent decree involving the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD). She has also practiced at the National Employment Litigation Unit (NELU) of the United States Postal Service handling class action employment discrimination matters. Jenipher has litigated complex civil litigation cases involving prisoners’ rights, law enforcement misconduct, and employment discrimination. She has been published in both domestic and international publications. Jenipher has also advocated for the rights of prisoners in the United States before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, The United Nations Association, and the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. As a legal educator, administrator, and member of the Executive Committee for the American Association of Law Schools (AALS), Balance Section and Scholarship Committee, she promotes diversity and wellness in the legal profession, particularly among law students and lawyers of color. Jenipher is also active in the community and serves on the Board of Directors for The Blue Bench of Colorado and Co-Chairs the National Lawyers Guild Mass Incarceration Committee. She is also the lead counsel for the Jailhouse Lawyers Speak International Law Project. Both a civil rights and integrative law lawyer, she is a graduate of the Center for Action and Contemplation’s Living School and is trained as to both contemplative and interfaith practices.