MarLa Duncan

Counsel

My Legal Practice

My experience covers all phases of complex investigations and trials, including trauma-informed witness preparation and expert witness testimony.

I spent the last year in civil practice litigating on behalf of survivors of sexual abuse. Prior to civil practice, I served as a prosecutor in both federal and state court for over a decade.

As a Trial Attorney in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, I prosecuted some of the country’s most serious civil rights violations. My practice focused on official misconduct, hate crimes, and sexual abuse. Before joining DOJ, I worked for nearly seven years as an Assistant District Attorney in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, where I prosecuted cases ranging from domestic violence to assaults and homicides.

I have tried nearly a dozen jury trials to verdict and have presented at professional conferences and law schools on the role of civil rights prosecutors, trial advocacy, and complex investigations.

Credentials

B.A. (with Honors), University of Chicago
J.D., Columbia Law School, Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar
Admitted in New York and New Jersey

My Story

Fighting for people who don’t have the power to fight for themselves has been the guiding principle of my career, and it’s personal as much as professional. As a woman and person of color, I’ve often been of the few lawyers in the room that look like me, and I’ve seen firsthand, amongst my family and friends, how discrimination and harassment shape people’s lives. Those experiences have stayed with me throughout my career, and my work has only reinforced it. Case after case, I’ve seen how power imbalances get exploited and how much damage gets done when institutions look away.

I started as a prosecutor at the Manhattan DA’s Office, where I saw often how the people most in need of protection were the ones least equipped to demand it. At the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, I prosecuted hate crimes based on race, gender, and sexual orientation and sexual abuse by people in positions of trust. That work showed me how much damage gets done in the space between what an institution knew and what it was willing to do about it. I most recently represented survivors of institutional sex abuse, holding accountable not just the individuals who caused harm, but the institutions that enabled it.

Outten & Golden is a continuation of that fight. Workers face the same imbalance of power I’ve spent my career litigating against, and I’m looking forward to bringing that same fight to their corner.

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