Desiree Lassiter received a Bachelor of Science degree in chemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she was awarded the Institute’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Leadership Award. Following MIT, Desiree continued her chemical engineering studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she was awarded the Eugene V. Cota-Robles Fellowship and received a Master of Science degree. Desiree went on to earn her Juris Doctor from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. At Berkeley Law, Desiree received the Francine Diaz Memorial Award and was a member of the California Law Review, Berkeley Law’s Death Penalty Clinic, and the La Raza Law Students Association.
While in law school, Desiree interned for Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia, and the Southern Center for Human Rights.
After graduating law school, Desiree was admitted to practice law in the state of New York and before the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Prior to joining the Office of the Federal Public Defender for the District of Maryland as an AFPD, Desiree was a trial attorney for the Bronx Defenders, a holistic public defender office in New York City. Desiree now serves as an attorney advisor with the Defender Services Office, Training Division.
