Jason Hoge
Employment & Housing Justice Attorney
Jason has spent his career as a public interest lawyer working for a diverse array of legal service providers both internationally and domestically, and in both civil and criminal fields of law. A 2004 graduate of CUNY Law at Queens College, Jason began his legal career as an international human rights lawyer working with the Burma Lawyers’ Counsel (BLC) on the Thai-Burma border in South East Asia. After leaving the BLC, Jason worked as a family court litigator at Legal Aid Society of Binghamton, NY where he represented low-income clients in private custody matters and neglect and abuse hearings. In 2006, Jason helped to create and direct the Re-Entry for Monroe County Legal Assistance Center (MCLAC), the Rochester office of Legal Assistance of Western New York. The MCLAC Re-Entry Project provided legal representation to persons formerly convicted of crimes and helped them to overcome legal barriers and stigmas that persons with criminal records often face when in reintegrating into society. In 2008, Jason was awarded the prestigious New York State Bar Association (NYSBA) Denison Ray Award for “extraordinary commitment to provision of creative, skilled, and zealous representation to low-income and disadvantaged clients … and the highest caliber legal representation and creativity in approaching the area of employment and civil rights law”.
In 2011, Jason left the civil legal practice to become a criminal defense attorney and joined the Office of Wayne County Public Defender. As a public defender, Jason represented low-income criminal defendants in all facets of felony, misdemeanor, and violation proceedings in criminal courts. Through his work in the field of reentry and his experience at the public defender’s office, Jason became intimately familiar with the detrimental impact the criminal justice system and its civil consequences has on communities that face discrimination. In 2013, Jason joined the faculty of the Syracuse University College of Law Office of Clinical Educational Programs as the Practitioner-In-Residence for the law school’s Criminal Defense Clinic (CDC). In the final act of his administration, President Barack Obama granted a Presidential Pardon that was submitted by Jason and his students on behalf of a CDC client who was a victim of human trafficking.
In 2018, Jason relocated from New York to the Bay Area, joined the California State Bar, and became FVAP’s Employment and Housing Justice Attorney.
