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AMBER D. FARRELLY
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Amber D. Farrelly received her undergraduate degree from the University of Oklahoma at Norman and her Juris Doctorate degree from Arizona State University Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law with the highest distinction for her pro bono work. Amber began her legal career clerking for both defense teams in the Yogurt Shop Murders shortly after their reversals in 2007 until both cases were dismissed in 2009. She then opened her private practice as a criminal defense attorney in 2009, and has worked with the Innocence Project of Texas. In 2011, she joined The Fowler Law Firm. Amber is licensed in and practices throughout the state of Texas. Amber specializes in Deaf clientele and is fluent in American Sign Language (ASL). Working with the Conviction Integrity Unit in Dallas County, she testified as an expert witness on ASL and Deaf culture in the Stephen Brodie exoneration case. She has consulted on numerous cases involving Deaf individuals as an expert. Amber is member of the Texas School for the Deaf Foundation Board and a board member of the Deafblind Service Center of Austin. She is dedicated to and an advocate for the Deaf. She is a member of the American Bar Association, Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, Austin Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, Austin Interpreters for the Deaf and the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf. She has given numerous presentations for Travis County Services for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, Austin Interpreters for the Deaf, the Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services, Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, and the Texas Society of Interpreters for the Deaf State Conference. She has also been a guest on Legal Broadcast Network. BEI Basic Certified
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A Defense Lawyer for the Deaf When Amber Farrelly Elliott was 9, her mother enrolled her in an American Sign Language class in hopes of keeping the inquisitive youngster occupied during summer vacation. The language immediately fascinated Elliott, whose hearing is not impaired. Every day she eagerly rode her bike to the class in a church in her hometown of Lawton, Okla., a military town near Fort Sill. Elliott studied signs at night to keep up with her adult classmates. That summer began an affinity for sign language and deaf culture that Elliott calls upon today as a criminal defense lawyer in Travis County. Licensed to practice law for just over a year, she fills a niche at the Travis County Courthouse with her ability to directly communicate with deaf clients instead of indirectly through an interpreter. "It's a beautiful language," Elliott said. "It's just so expressive. And captivating. When you see somebody sign you can't help as a hearing person to look and be like, 'Wow, they are communicating with their hands and they completely understand each other.' " Read more>>
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Deaf Inmate's Sex Conviction Overturned DALLAS - A Texas judge has set aside the conviction of a deaf man who was imprisoned for sexual assault of a child even though a fingerprint at the crime scene matched a convicted child rapist. Stephen Brodie's conviction was overturned Monday in a Dallas courtroom. The district attorney's office supported the 39-year-old man's claims of innocence. There was no physical evidence linking Brodie to the 1990 sexual assault of a 5-year-old girl. His attorney, Michelle Moore, says prosecutors failed to notify Brodie's lawyer about forensic testing on hair found at the crime scene excluding him as the source. After Brodie was convicted, police in suburban Richardson learned the fingerprint matched a man who pleaded guilty to the sexual assault of a 15-year-old girl.
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919 CONGRESS AVENUE, SUITE 900 AUSTIN, TX 78701 |
PHONE: 512-441-1411 FAX: 512-469-2975 |
