Leonard Noisette

Leonard Noisette is the director of the Criminal Justice Fund for U.S. Programs at the Open Society Foundations. In this role, Noisette leads the foundation's efforts to reduce mass incarceration, end harsh punishment, and eliminate racial disparities and secure a fair and equitable system of justice.

Noisette has spent his entire professional career working in the criminal justice arena. He has worked with the New York City Legal Aid Society, and was a founding member and longtime executive director of the Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem, an innovative public defender office renowned for its leadership in the development of community-based, full service representation of clients.  Through his position there, Noisette was involved in local, statewide and national efforts to address the many deficiencies in the U.S. criminal justice system. 

During the years of the Clinton Administration, Noisette participated in the Justice Department's work to improve indigent defense and defense-prosecution relations.  From 1999-2001, he was a member of the Executive Session on Public Defense, sponsored by the Federal Bureau of Justice Assistance and Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. 

Noisette has served on the boards of the New York State Defenders Association and the National Legal Aid & Defender Association.  He is an adjunct professor at Fordham and Columbia University Law Schools, and is an active member of numerous bar associations.