Amy Gilbert is a Senior Staff Attorney with the ACLU of Ohio, where she participates in all stages of civil litigation of potentially complex cases to defend and extend civil liberties and advance civil rights throughout Ohio and beyond. Amy’s work at the ACLU spans various issue areas, including protecting and preserving the right to reproductive freedom, defending and advancing the rights of the LGBTQ+ community, First Amendment protections, students’ rights, open government, and more.
Amy comes to the ACLU of Ohio by way of the ACLU of Northern California, where she engaged in high impact civil rights litigation as a Staff Attorney. At the ACLU of Northern California, Amy’s work primarily focused on broad criminal justice reform, seeking to end unjust laws, policies and practices that disproportionately harm communities of color. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Amy engaged in outreach, advocacy, and litigation to ensure courts throughout the State of California protected the constitutional rights of the public and the press to view judicial proceedings (American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California et al. v. Harber-Pickens et al.) and was involved in filing a class action lawsuit to compel the Tulare County Sheriff to take immediate precautions to prevent a severe spread of COVID-19 among incarcerated people and release as many medically vulnerable people as possible to home confinement (Criswell v. Boudreaux).
Amy received her undergraduate degree in 2009 from the University of Michigan and her J.D in 2014 from Loyola University of Chicago School of Law where she was a Child Law Fellow. While in law school, Amy served as the Editor-in-Chief of the Children’s Legal Rights Journal, externed with the Honorable Robert W. Gettleman in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, and co-facilitated a class at the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center teaching detained youth their constitutional rights. Amy also traveled to Ethiopia and Thailand to study the ways in which each country’s legal system impacted the rights of children. Before joining the ACLU, Amy clerked for the Honorable Mary L. Mikva in the Chancery Court of Cook County, Illinois, and worked at a law firm where she engaged in complex civil litigation. Outside of work, Amy enjoys traveling, cooking, staying active, and keeping busy with her three adventurous and curious daughters.
