Alissa Bjerkhoel, a native of Truckee, Calif., is an attorney for the California Innocence Project, based out of California Western School of Law. The project is a nonprofit, in-house law school clinic that investigates and litigates cases of factual innocence while training law students to be ethical, justice-driven advocates. To date, the project has been successful in exonerating nine factually innocent clients and has been recognized with several awards, as well as local, national and international media attention (californiainnocenceproject.org). 

Bjerkhoel’s love for working in the area of indigent defense has also resulted in a panel attorney position for Appellate Defenders Inc., a nonprofit law firm that administers the appointed counsel system for the California Court of Appeal, Fourth Appellate District.

Over the course of her career, she has served as counsel on numerous criminal cases and has been successful in exonerating several wrongfully convicted clients. Bjerkhoel’s work was instrumental in the exonerations of Timothy Atkins (exonerated by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge in February 2007), Reggie Cole (exonerated by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge in April 2009) and Daniel Larsen (exonerated by a United States Magistrate judge in June 2010). 

Bjerkhoel was featured on San Diego Channel 6 News in the segment “Aid for Wrongfully Accused” (Feb. 22, 2010), on KPBS in the segment “The California Innocence Project and the Freedom of Reggie Cole” (April 8, 2010) and on San Diego’s KUSI News discussing the release of Reggie Cole (May 16, 2010). Her work on these cases and others helped earn her a role of supervising attorney in the California Innocence Project, where in addition to her own case load, she supervises more than 100 cases each year.

Prior to her work with the California Innocence Project, Bjerkhoel worked as a judicial extern for the Honorable Jan Adler, Magistrate Judge for the United States District Court for the Southern District of California; worked at the Defensoria Penal Publica de Santiago in Santiago, Chile, where she, along with others, drafted a treatise on evidentiary procedures in the United States as well as presented a seminar (“A Pragmatic Approach to Evidence”) to assist the public defenders in Chile; and worked as an intern at both a civil litigation law firm and a corporation. 

During her growing legal career, Bjerkhoel has received the Joe & Denise Walsh Excellence in Advocacy Award in recognition of her contribution and dedication to the California Innocence Project, the Hugh P. Chindlund Law School Service Award for outstanding service and commitment to California Western School of Law, the Wiley W. Manuel Award for Pro Bono Legal Services, and the Adrianne Baker Fellowship. She was named a Post Conviction Lawyer of the Year by the Criminal Defense Bar Association of San Diego.