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Our Team
Sennett Devermont
Sennett is a legal rights activist and founder of Mr. Checkpoint and the AFTP Foundation. Born and raised in Los Angeles by a family of lawyers and activists, Sennett learned about social justice issues and developed a critical lens on our justice system at a young age. Sennett has been mobilizing for social change and spearheading AFTP’s initiatives to deepen peoples understanding of their legal rights. He is committed to combating the indifference, inaction, and apathy that perpetuate widespread injustice and inequity in our criminal justice system.
Hadiya Kennedy
Before co-founding AFTP, Hadiya served as a police officer with the LAPD for 11 years, where she worked tirelessly as an advocate for people in her community. She holds a psychology degree from Clark Atlanta University and currently works as a behavioral therapist. As a mother and activist, Hadiya is passionate about AFTP’s growing mission, especially providing people with legal and other kinds of critical support.
Attorney Nicholas Rosenberg
Attorney Rosenberg holds a BA from UC Berkeley, and a JD from the University of San Francisco’s School of Law, where he was top of his constitutional law class. Nicholas is a practicing criminal defense lawyer, a restorative justice advocate, and has worked as a lead arbitrator in community courts. He has experience as a community organizer and in the non-profit sector in various roles from director to board member. Nicholas is dedicated to a less punitive legal system that improves public safety and protects civil rights for all.
Leila Steinberg
Leila Steinberg is a businesswoman, artist manager, educator, writer, poet, and the founder of AIM4TheHeART, a 501(c)(3) non-
Leila is also known as the artist mentor and first manager for superstar rapper Tupac Shakur. They met when he was a student in her writing workshop, The Microphone Sessions, which continues today.
Britton Smith
Britton Smith is the Senior Director of Strategic Partnerships for REFORM Alliance, an organization focused on changing criminal justice through transformative probation and parole legislation, led by Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter, Robert Smith, Robert Kraft, Michael Rubin and Meek Mill. Under the leadership of CEO, Robert Rooks, Britton Smith utilizes his talents as an experienced national campaign and political strategist who has specialized in helping organizations and candidates appeal to a more modern and reflective demographic. Britton continues to be at the forefront the battles for equality and social justice.
In 2015, Britton became the National Political Director for his fraternity, Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc., organizing their membership of over 170,000 on voter registration projects, civic education efforts and shaping their legislative advocacy agenda. Organizing nationwide, Britton has established a rapport with community leaders and lawmakers alike. Smith was asked to serve as a representative on the White House’s task force on criminal justice reform working with other prominent leaders in the space of criminal justice.
Executive Board
Attorney John Burris
John L. Burris is an Oakland civil rights attorney specializing in police misconduct. He has represented over a thousand victims of such misconduct over the last 40 plus years including many death cases.
His work has resulted in reforms or new policies in the area of canine use, the use of deadly force, the use of hog tying and pepper spray, proper police treatment of the mentally impaired, public strip searching and tasers. In 2003, as co-counsel with Jim Chanin, Attorney Burris settled a class action suit against the Oakland Police Department. During the case, referred to as the “Riders” they represented 119 plaintiffs. Aside from the 11 million settlement, part of the case settlement resulted in a court ordered monitor to facilitate specific reforms concerning racial profiling, use of deadly force, and disparate officer discipline within the Department.
Attorney Ben Crump
Listed amongst the Most Influential People of 2021 by TIME100, Ebony Magazine’s Power 100 Most Influential African Americans, The National Trial Lawyers Top 100 Lawyers, and the 2014 NNPA Newsmaker of the Year, Attorney Ben Crump is referred to as Black America’s Attorney General. Through a steadfast dedication to justice and service, renowned civil rights and personal injury attorney Benjamin Crump has established himself as one of the nation’s foremost lawyers and advocates for social justice. His legal acumen has ensured that those marginalized in American society are protected by their nation’s contract with its constituency. He is the founder and principal owner of Ben Crump Law.
Professor Jody Armour
Jody David Armour is the Roy P. Crocker Professor of Law at the University of Southern California. He has been a member of the faculty since 1995. Armour’s expertise ranges from personal injury claims to claims about the relationship between racial justice, criminal justice, and the rule of law. Armour studies the intersection of race and legal decision making as well as torts and tort reform movements.
A widely published scholar and popular lecturer, Armour is a Soros Justice Senior Fellow of The Open Society Institute’s Center on Crime, Communities and Culture. He has published articles in Stanford Law Review, California Law Review, Vanderbilt Law Review, Boston College Law Review, Southern California Review of Law and Women’s Studies, University of Colorado Law Review, University of Pittsburgh Law Review, Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review, Southwestern University Law Review, and Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law. His book Negrophobia and Reasonable Racism: The Hidden Costs of Being Black in America (New York University Press) addresses three core concerns of the Black Lives Matter movement—namely, racial profiling, police brutality, and mass incarceration.
Attorney Gary Dordick
Gary A. Dordick of Dordick Law Corporation is a trial attorney specializing in plaintiff jury trials and has over 150 Jury trials in his career. Mr. Dordick went directly from high school to law school, never attending college. He put himself through a four-year night program while working at a law office, where he started as a file room clerk. Immediately after passing the bar, Mr. Dordick opened his own law firm, starting out with no employees. Now, Dordick Law Corporation has three locations and 66 employees of which 20 are associate attorneys. The associate attorneys include his wife Nava and three of his children, Michelle, Dylan, and Taylor.
Attorney Jenny Saphier
Board Member of the Innocence Project of Texas and Board Member of the Clayton Dabney Foundation
