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Lisa Romo

Retired Public Defender
Berkeley Law Criminal Law and Justice Center

Lisa Romo is a retired public defender affiliated with Berkeley Law’s Criminal Law and Justice Center, where her current work focuses on racial justice in the criminal legal system. She is collaborating on an empirical study examining barriers to implementation of California’s Racial Justice Act and is also working with a coalition challenging the constitutionality of California’s death penalty system based on racial disparities. In 2025–2026, she served as a supervising attorney with Berkeley Law’s Death Penalty Clinic.

Prior to her retirement, Lisa worked with the Office of the State Public Defender, where she served as Director of Systemic Issues Litigation for capital cases and later joined the Indigent Defense Improvement Division, focusing on the Racial Justice Act and criminal street gang reform. She also spent more than a decade in private practice representing capital clients in state and federal post-conviction litigation. Lisa earned her J.D. from Berkeley Law in 1987.