Udi Ofer is the James L. Weinberg Visiting Professor and Lecturer in the School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. He is the founding Director of the Policy Advocacy Clinic at Princeton University and teaches courses on civil rights, policing, criminal justice reform, public policy and social change.
Ofer has more than 20 years of experience as a civil rights lawyer advocating for social change, racial justice and equality, and leading policy campaigns at the local, state and federal levels. For 20 years, Ofer worked as an attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), where he helped transform the organization into an advocacy powerhouse, expanding its work into new issues areas and tactics, including nonpartisan political advocacy. Ofer’s work has led to passage of hundreds of laws and policies across the nation.
From 2016-2022, Ofer was the Deputy National Political Director of the ACLU and the founding Director of the ACLU’s Justice Division, leading the organization’s advocacy on criminal justice reform, including before the White House and Congress. He is best known for building the ACLU's Campaign for Smart Justice, an unprecedented 50-state strategy to end mass incarceration, and launching the ACLU's first-ever campaign to engage in a district attorney race. Under his leadership, the ACLU engaged in 45 district attorney races in 15 states, educating and mobilizing tens of millions of voters and helping to transform the role of prosecutor in the United States.