Beulah Agbabiaka

Background

In her seven years as an attorney, Beulah has developed insight into the myriad factors that are necessary for a strong case and consistently applies this knowledge in her quest for positive outcomes for her clients.  Her commitment to justice and client-centered advocacy was inspired by her mother founding a charter school for at-risk and system-involved youth in the San Francisco Bay Area where Beulah grew up.

Prior to joining the firm, she worked as an appellate public defender with the Center for Appellate Litigation. She advocated for clients in the New York Appellate Term and the Appellate Division, as well as Bronx and New York Criminal Court, representing people on misdemeanor and felony matters in addition to her briefs and motions practice. As a member of the Sexual Offender Registration Act team at the Center for Appellate Litigation, she represented clients in hearings to determine their Sexual Offender Registration Act level, as well as filing petitions to modify her client’s sexual offender status after court-determined milestones had been met.

Beulah relocated to Philadelphia in order to clerk for the Honorable Petrese B. Tucker in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. After her formative two-year clerkship, Beulah had the privilege of serving as a Research and Writing Attorney at the Federal Community Defender’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Due to the nationwide practice of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania’s Capital Habeas Unit, where the office is called upon to represent clients at all stages of their post-conviction proceedings due to their demonstrable outcomes in the toughest cases around the country, Beulah had the opportunity to study Southern jurisprudence and advocate for clients in Texas and Louisiana as well as Pennsylvania.

As a student at Columbia Law School, Beulah honed her written and oral advocacy skills through a variety of challenging internships and as the Editor-in-Chief of The Columbia Journal of Race and Law Volume 8.  As an intern for Zhicheng Public Interest Lawyers in Beijing, China, she conducted comparative research on juvenile justice policy and issues affecting senior citizens and presented the research on panels at local universities. Her research was in Mandarin and English, and she was tasked with ensuring the research was accurate and relevant to both Beijing and New York City’s developing juvenile justice policy and senior citizen policy.

As the Spring Break Pro Bono Caravan Leader to the Miami Dade Public Defender’s Office, and as an intern at the Neighborhood Defender Services of Harlem, she engaged in the criminal trial and pre-trial process, conducted legal research on the Fourth and Fifth Amendments, and assisted in pre-trial investigation. While interning with Alliance of Families for Justice New York, she drafted drafting administrative tickets to dispute conditions of confinement for incarcerated adults and helped to build out the beginnings of their legal program, which today has progressed to full-service representation for incarcerated individuals and their families’ battling conditions of confinement issues. As a law clerk for the Public Defender Services for the District of Columbia, she assisted with a suppression hearing and with a criminal trial, as well as client management.  As an extern for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, she conducted research underpinning their impact litigation agenda for the following year. During her last semester of law school, Beulah interned for the Honorable Margo K. Brodie in the Eastern District of New York.

Beulah is published in the Cornell Law Review Online for an article she co-authored with Emmanuel Hiram Arnaud called “New York Bail Reform: A Quick Guide to Common Questions and Concerns.” She has presented on panels for the Color of Change, a racial justice organization dedicated to building impactful campaigns that build power within Black communities.  She has also presented on panels for the Broadway Advocacy Coalition, a Tony Award-winning organization uniting artists with legal experts and community leaders to have a lasting impact on policy issues including criminal justice reform and education equity.  She hopes to continue building faith in the justice system through advocacy and excellent representation.

Beulah’s honors include:

• NAACP Legal Defense Fund Earl Warren Scholar, for academic excellence, and commitment to public interest and social justice
• Columbia Law School Oldhams Fellowship, for advanced research in comparative Chinese law
• John Paul Stevens Foundation Public Interest Fellowship, for academic excellence and demonstrated commitment to public interest
• Leadership Institute of Women of Color Attorneys Scholarship, for academic excellence and student leadership
• The Parker School Certificate of Achievement in International and Comparative Law, for completing coursework requirements and advanced research in international and comparative

In her free time, Beulah volunteers as an Assistant Coach for her mother’s Science Olympiad team at a School District of Philadelphia middle school, plays jazz bass and guitar, and loves to visit amusement parks.