Talia Gooding-Williams

Talia Gooding-Williams is a Senior Associate at Klein Civil Rights, where she furthers the firm's mission of fighting for people whose civil rights have been violated. Ms. Gooding-Williams brings more than a decade of trial experience spanning criminal defense, post-conviction litigation, and advocacy for people failed by the justice system. Her practice focuses on wrongful conviction, excessive force, and unlawful police conduct.

Before joining Klein Civil Rights, Ms. Gooding-Williams served as an Assistant District Attorney in the Manhattan District Attorney's Post-Conviction Justice Unit, where she conducted independent investigations into serious felony and homicide convictions to determine whether they should be vacated or modified. During her tenure, she co-counseled the review of four cases that resulted in exoneration — helping to correct the failures of a system that has too often harmed the very people it was meant to protect.

Earlier in her career, Ms. Gooding-Williams spent five years as a Supervising Attorney at The Bronx Defenders, one of New York City's leading public defense organizations. She supervised more than a dozen attorneys handling misdemeanor and felony matters across Bronx Criminal and Supreme Court, while maintaining her own caseload of serious cases, including A-II felonies, sex offenses, and homicides.

Ms. Gooding-Williams began her legal career as an Assistant Public Defender in Palm Beach County, Florida, where she tried dozens of jury trials to verdict. She represented children charged with the most serious offenses — including first-degree felonies and cases in which the State sought to prosecute juveniles as adults — and litigated post-conviction resentencing hearings for clients who had been sentenced as children to life in prison.

Ms. Gooding-Williams earned her J.D. from New York University School of Law as a Root-Tilden-Kern Scholar, a distinction awarded for academic merit, leadership, and commitment to public service. She also received the Ann Petluck Poses Memorial Prize, designated by the Dean in recognition of outstanding work in a course requiring student practice, for her work in the Juvenile Defender's Clinic. Ms. Gooding-Williams holds a B.A. with distinction from Yale University in English and Ethnicity, Race and Migration. She is admitted to practice in New York.