Center for Justice & Democracy
CJ&D Staff
The Center for Justice & Democracy has a dedicated professional staff committed to protecting the civil justice system.
CJ&D - National Office
- Joanne Doroshow, Executive Director
- Emily Gottlieb, Deputy Director
- Daniel Albanese, Associate Director
- Amy Widman, Legal Director
- Alicia Young, Communications Director
Joanne Doroshow is the founder and executive director of the Center for Justice & Democracy and co-founder of Americans for Insurance Reform (AIR). An attorney, Doroshow has worked on civil justice issues since 1986, when she directed an insurance industry and liability project for Ralph Nader. Together, they developed some of the first educational materials used to fight "tort reform" around the country including Goliath: Lloyd's of London in the United States (1988) and Safeguarding Democracy: The Case for the Civil Jury (1992).
Doroshow founded CJ&D in 1998. As CJ&D Executive Director, she has testified before the U.S. Congress many times and appeared before numerous state legislatures around the country. She has written or co-authored numerous CJ&D studies and White Papers on civil justice issues including Premium Deceit: The Failure of "Tort Reform" to Cut Insurance Prices, The CALA Files: The Secret Campaign by Big Tobacco and Other Major Industries to Take Away Your Rights, The Bitterest Pill, and The Racial Implications of Tort Reform. She also edited Lifesavers: CJ&D's Guide to Lawsuits that Protect Us All, The Secret Chamber, Workers Compensation- A Cautionary Tale, How the Civil Justice System Protects Environmental Health and many other CJ&D publications.
Doroshow is a nationally recognized civil justice expert, frequently appearing on television and radio programs on CBS, ABC, NBC, PBS, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, CNBC, C-SPAN, and NPR. She is regularly quoted in newspapers nationwide, including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Miami Herald and Los Angeles Times. Doroshow has film and television production experience as well. She was one of the producers of the 1992 Academy Award-winning documentary, The Panama Deception, and has worked on the theatrical, broadcast and video distribution of a number of films. In 1994 and 1995, she was a Segment Producer and Coordinating Producer for TV Nation, the Emmy Award-winning humorous political show by Michael Moore. She was also a Coordinating Producer of the documentary SiCKO (2007) and an Associate Producer of Fahrenheit 9/11.
From 1981 through 1985, Doroshow was lead counsel and spokesperson for TMI Alert, a community group working to block the restart of the TMI-1 nuclear reactor after the 1979 Three Mile Island accident and whose case reached the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1992, she worked on the successful Supreme Court appeal of the Karen Silkwood case. From 1989 to 1990, Doroshow was the director of California-based Bhopal Justice Campaign, a coalition of community groups and leaders fighting for statewide support for victims of the India gas disaster.
Emily is an attorney who is one the organization's principal writers and analysts. Prior to joining CJ&D in 2000, Emily was a volunteer attorney with the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, Community Outreach Law Program, Legal Clinic for the Homeless. She was a student law clerk for Federal Magistrate Judge Ronald L. Ellis and New York County Civil Court Justice Alice Schlesinger, a Mediator with the Brooklyn Law School Mediation Clinic, and an intern with the New York City Commission on Human Rights. She received her law degree from Brooklyn Law School in 1998.
Daniel coordinates CJ&D's membership program, designs all publications and educational material, and oversees the administrative aspects of the organization. Before joining CJ&D in 2006, he helped organize educational programs and events for Fordham Law School's Career Planning Center. Daniel studied Anthropology and Religious Studies at SUNY New Paltz, and currently serves on the Professional Advisory Board of Take Back the News.
Amy provides legislative and policy analysis and research to CJ&D. The author of a number of law reviews and White Papers, she helps develop policy positions and educational campaigns to preserve the civil justice system. Amy is an attorney with experience in advocacy, legislative and public policy analysis on issues of environmental and economic rights, especially urban environmental issues and land use planning. Before joining CJ&D, Amy was a post-graduate research fellow at New York University's School of Law's Center for Environmental and Land Use Law. Amy has taught legal research and writing at Cardozo Law School and has also taught at the Brooklyn Center for the Urban Environment. She clerked for U.S. Magistrate Judge Theodore H. Katz (SDNY). Amy is a graduate of NYU School of Law.
For over 13 years, Alicia Young has advocated for social justice and human rights through strategic litigation, equitable policymaking and compelling media strategy. Recently she served as the Chief Strategist and Director of Communications for Working Films. Prior to joining Working Films, she was a Senior Program Associate with the Vera Institute of Justice's State Sentencing and Corrections Program. She was a litigator for the ACLU's Drug Law Reform Project as well as an Assistant Attorney General for the State of New York’s Labor Bureau. She began her career as a Program Associate in the Governance and Civil Society Program of the Ford Foundation. Alicia has a B.A. in philosophy and French from Northwestern University and a J.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She also completed the Executive Program of Columbia Business School’s Institute for Not-for-Profit Management.