Innocence Project New Orleans

What Innocence Project New Orleans does

Innocence & Justice Louisiana, formerly Innocence Project New Orleans, is a nonprofit legal services organization founded in 2001 and headquartered in New Orleans, Louisiana. It is the only nonprofit law firm in the state dedicated to post-conviction relief, providing free legal representation to individuals seeking to challenge wrongful convictions or unjust sentences. The organization serves a narrow, vulnerable client base of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals in Louisiana, with no fee-for-service revenue component.

The organization's service portfolio spans four pillars: post-conviction innocence litigation, unjust punishment advocacy, re-entry support, and legislative reform. It operates two named programs — the LSU Wrongful Conviction Clinic, a clinical partnership with Louisiana State University's law school, and LLEAD, a community education and advocacy initiative. Operations are funded entirely through donations and charitable contributions, and the organization maintains a staff of approximately 23 employees. Its website reports 1 person freed through its work since 2001, a throughput figure that warrants scrutiny in any diligence context.

The 2025 rebrand to Innocence & Justice Louisiana marks a strategic pivot from a narrow innocence-framing mission to a broader criminal justice reform posture, explicitly adding unjust punishment, re-entry, and legislative advocacy to its remit. This positioning aligns the organization with a wider donor constituency and a larger pool of prospective clients, while preserving its litigation core. The organization's competitive position within Louisiana rests on its categorical exclusivity as the state's only dedicated post-conviction nonprofit law firm, supported by academic partnerships and two decades of brand accumulation.

Name

Innocence Project New Orleans

Legal name

Innocence & Justice Louisiana

Website

https://ip-no.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2001

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Innocence & Justice Louisiana is a New Orleans-based nonprofit law firm providing free post-conviction legal representation to wrongfully convicted and unjustly sentenced individuals in Louisiana, and the only organization of its kind in the state.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Legal Services — Post-Conviction Relief and Criminal Justice Advocacy

NAICS

Offices of Lawyers (541110), Offices of Lawyers (54111), Legal Services (5411)

SIC

Services-Legal Services (8111)

akta.pro primary industry

Criminal Defense (BPAHAAAN)

akta.pro secondary industry

Criminal Justice Reform & Legal System Advocacy (BPAGAFAI)

Keywords

• Post-conviction relief
• Wrongful conviction representation
• Criminal justice advocacy
• Exoneration legal services
• Legal aid nonprofit

Headquarters

HQ city

New Orleans

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Donations and charitable contributions: The organization relies on donations from individuals, foundations, and corporations to fund its legal operations. As a nonprofit law firm, services are provided free of charge to clients.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Innocence & Justice Louisiana (formerly Innocence Project New Orleans) is a nonprofit law firm that provides free post-conviction legal representation to individuals in Louisiana who have been wrongfully convicted or unjustly punished. Its attorneys and investigators work to uncover new evidence, expose misconduct, secure exonerations, challenge excessive sentences, and represent clients before parole boards. The organization also provides re-entry support after release and engages in legislative and policy advocacy to drive systemic criminal justice reform in Louisiana.

Product overview

Innocence & Justice Louisiana (formerly Innocence Project New Orleans) operates as a nonprofit law firm providing post-conviction legal services. The organization offers a coordinated suite of services: post-conviction innocence representation to free the wrongfully convicted, unjust punishment legal services to challenge excessive sentences, re-entry support for released individuals, and legislative/policy advocacy for systemic reform. The organization also runs the LSU Wrongful Conviction Clinic (a law school partnership) and LLEAD program for leadership development. Public reports on criminal justice data supplement their direct client services.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Post-Conviction Innocence Representation

Quantifiable outcome

• Since 2001, freed 1 person who was innocent or unjustly punished

Named customers2 records

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• LSU Wrongful Conviction CliniccoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerA collaborative partnership between Innocence & Justice Louisiana and Louisiana State University's law school, providing law students with hands-on experience in wrongful conviction cases while expanding the organization's capacity to take on cases and drive research in criminal justice reform.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Broad incumbents

• The Sentencing Project: National research and advocacy organization focused on sentencing reform, mandatory minimums, and life-without-parole — directly aligned with IPNO's policy advocacy on habitual offender and three-strikes laws in Louisiana.
• Equal Justice Initiative: Larger and more broadly resourced nonprofit focused on mass incarceration, racial injustice, and criminal justice reform; overlaps meaningfully with IPNO's advocacy and re-entry work but operates at national scale with a much larger staff and endowment.
• Brennan Center for Justice: Established national justice reform organization working on criminal justice policy, prosecution accountability, and use-of-force data — overlapping with IPNO's legislative advocacy and recent law-enforcement data reporting program.
• Vera Institute of Justice: National nonprofit working on criminal justice reform, including jail conditions, sentencing, and re-entry — broader than IPNO but overlapping heavily on the policy advocacy and unjust-punishment dimensions of the mission.

Direct peers

• Innocence Project: The flagship U.S. Innocence Project founded at Cardozo Law; runs the same post-conviction exoneration model as Innocence & Justice Louisiana and is the network umbrella for many affiliated innocence organizations including IPNO historically.
• Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project: Regional Innocence Project affiliate operating a comparable post-conviction exoneration practice (investigation, legal representation, re-entry support) for wrongfully convicted individuals, analogous to IPNO's model but in a different geography.
• Northwestern University Center on Wrongful Convictions: Law-school-based innocence clinic that combines student case work, investigation, and policy advocacy in wrongful conviction cases — structurally comparable to IPNO's LSU Wrongful Conviction Clinic partnership.

Regional players

• Innocence Project of Texas: State-scoped innocence nonprofit in Texas operating a near-identical post-conviction exoneration model; comparable mission and service mix but operates in a different state, so no direct competition with IPNO.

Emerging players

• After Innocence: Smaller nonprofit that specifically provides post-release re-entry and reintegration services for exonerees — directly comparable to IPNO's Re-Entry Support service line.
• Life After Exoneration Initiative: Law-school-based reentry and exoneree-support clinic at UCLA Law, structurally analogous to IPNO's re-entry and LLEAD leadership development programs.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/justicela_org
• YouTubeyoutube.com/@justicelouisiana
• Facebookfacebook.com/innocencejusticelouisiana
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/innocence-project-new-orleans
• Instagraminstagram.com/justicelouisiana

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Innocence Project New Orleans