Jacqueline Greene
Partner
Jacqueline Greene is dedicated to fighting and exposing violence, brutality, and abuse at the hands of the government—and to demanding truth and accountability.
As a young child growing up in Cleveland, Jacqueline was taught about police misconduct and racism and classism in our legal system. In response, as a young adult, she became an activist and advocate. This work ultimately led Jacqueline to realize that her most skilled contributions to demanding accountability revolved around pushing for change in and through the law and in fighting for the acknowledgment of human rights violations.
Jacqueline decided to go to law school. During and after those years, Jacqueline worked abroad in international criminal and human rights law, including as a member of the Nuon Chea defense team in the Khmer Rouge Trials in Cambodia and as part of the prosecution team in the trial of warlord and Liberian ex-president Charles Taylor in the Special Court for Sierra Leone. She was a Human Rights Fellow at the American Bar Association’s Rule of Law Initiative in 2013 and a researcher for the International Bar Association Human Rights Institute in 2011 and 2012. She worked on public health investigations and legal projects in 2008 and 2009 in southern Africa.
In 2014, Jacqueline pivoted back to focusing on civil rights battles at home. She came back to Ohio and joined Friedman & Gilbert as an associate that year. She was named partner in 2017.
Jacqueline has been legal counsel on many high-profile cases, including a recent $18 million legal settlement with the City of Cleveland on behalf of three Cleveland men who were victims of police misconduct and wrongly imprisoned for decades of their lives. Before the settlement was reached, she was part of the legal team that worked to exonerate Kwame Ajamu and Wiley Bridgeman.
In 2015, Jacqueline worked on a case for Kenny Smith, who was murdered by Cleveland police officer Roger Jones. At trial, a jury awarded Smith’s family $5.5 million, the largest jury verdict for a police shooting in Ohio history.
Outside the courtroom, Jacqueline remains an activist, working with local organizations and boards, including the Ohio chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, the Northeast Ohio Board of Advocates for the Ohio Innocence Project, and the National Police Accountability Project’s CLE committee.
In her role with the National Lawyers Guild, Jacqueline has represented many protesters and organized other lawyers to provide pro bono defense—first in Cleveland, and now in Cincinnati. She also coordinates media response and works with local organizers to provide legal support.
Jacqueline is a respected voice on civil rights issues and has been quoted in numerous local and national publications, including The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Mother Jones, The Intercept, The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer, and The Cincinnati Enquirer.
EDUCATION
Case Western Reserve University, J.D. cum laude (2011)
Case Western Reserve University, B.A. (2007)
Key Cases
2015: Smith v. Jones, $5.5 million jury award in an Excessive Force Case against a Cleveland police officer
BAR ADMISSIONS
New York Court of Appeals (2012)
Supreme Court of Ohio (2014)
U.S. District Court, Northern District of Ohio (2014)
U.S. District Court, Southern District of Ohio (2017)
United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (2016)
PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS
National Police Accountability Project, Member and CLE Committee Co-Chair
Ohio Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, Statewide Co-Coordinator
Northeast Ohio Board of Advocates for the Ohio Innocence Project, President
Federal Bar Association, ND Ohio Chapter Board, Director-at-Large
Cuyahoga County Defense Lawyers Association, Member
Cincinnati Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Member
Awards
Super Lawyers Rising Star - 2019, 2020, 2021
Case Western Reserve University - College of Arts and Sciences 2017 Distinguished Young Alumna