The Legal Aid Society and others are hopeful for a resumption of Department of Justice priorities that focus on advances in police accountability as well as public defense investment with the incoming Biden administration, as reported by Law360.

Democratic leaders have recently prioritized police reforms like a chokehold ban and ending qualified immunity, with many expecting a return to pattern and practice investigations into police departments accused of misconduct, as well as other initiatives.

Corey Stoughton, Attorney-in-Charge of the Special Litigation and Law Reform Unit at the Legal Aid Society – and served as senior counsel to the assistant attorney general for civil rights under Obama in 2015 and 2016 – predicted a reinstatement of the Office for Access to Justice, created in 2010 to expand legal representation for the indigent and abandoned by the Trump administration.

“The amount of money that the federal government pours into state and local criminal prosecutions is quite staggering, and to achieve anything like parity would be nothing short of revolutionary,” she said.