OUR ATTORNEYS
Jennifer L. Givens
Director, Innocence Project Clinic
Professor of Law
J.D., DePaul University College of Law, 1997
B.A., Furman University, 1994
Jennifer Givens is a Director of the Innocence Project Clinic, which she co-teaches with Juliet Hatchett.
Prior to joining the clinic in 2015, Givens worked as an assistant federal defender in the Capital Habeas Unit of the Federal Defender Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and as a senior staff attorney with the Virginia Capital Representation Resource Center, where she represented death-sentenced inmates in state and federal post-conviction proceedings. Her career successes include securing a grant of clemency for a severely mentally ill client and winning a life sentence for an intellectually disabled client, both of whom were sentenced to death in Virginia. She has argued before state trial courts and U.S. district courts in Pennsylvania and Virginia, as well as the Virginia Supreme Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
Givens has served as an adjunct professor at Temple University School of Law and has regularly spoken at local and national capital habeas corpus trainings and conferences.
She is a member of the Virginia, Pennsylvania and Georgia bars.
Juliet B. Hatchett
Director, Innocence Project Clinic
Assistant Professor of Law
J.D., University of Virginia School of Law, 2015
B.A., Columbia University, 2010
Juliet Hatchett is a Director of the Innocence Project Clinic, which she co-teaches with Jennifer Givens.
Previously, Hatchett served as staff attorney and then Associate Director of the Innocence Project Clinic. As staff attorney, for two years (2019-2021) Hatchett oversaw the Innocence Project at UVA School of Law’s Student Pro Bono Clinic. Hatchett supervised a record 2,406 pro bono hours during her second year and oversaw, amongst other victories, the Pro Bono Clinic’s first Policy Team, which in its first two years successfully advocated for three bills that were signed into law. As Associate Director from 2021-2024, Hatchett continued to spearhead policy efforts and was instrumental in significant changes to Virginia’s law governing compensation for the wrongfully convicted. Amongst other victories, she has seen multiple clients whose cases she led achieve conditional and absolute pardons and helped win habeas relief for a client that was upheld by the Supreme Court of Virginia. Hatchett became a Director in May 2024.
Before coming to UVA Law, Hatchett worked in private practice in New York City, focusing on white-collar criminal defense. A former member of the Innocence Project Clinic when she was a student at the Law School, she also served as a fellow in the Program in Law and Public Service, a participant in the Human Rights Study Project, and a Notes Editor for the Virginia Journal of International Law.
She is a member of the New York and Virginia bars.
Payal C. Sampat
Staff Attorney, Innocence Project Clinic
J.D., University of Virginia School of Law, 2023
B.A., B.S., University of Texas at Dallas, 2020
Payal Sampat is the Staff Attorney with the Innocence Project Clinic, where she primarily focuses on the Pro Bono Clinic.
Prior to joining the clinic, Sampat worked at the law firm Mayer Brown in New York City as a banking and finance attorney. Sampat was a former member of the pro bono clinic as a student, as well as the Decarceration and Community Reentry Clinic. She also served as a research assistant for Professor Douglas Laycock on the Restatement (Third) of Torts: Remedies.
She is a member of the New York bar.
