Owen Daniel-McCarter received his J.D. from the City University of New York School of Law.  There, he worked in the Immigrant and Refugee Rights Clinic where he defended families facing deportation. He successfully won Permanent Legal Resident status (Green Cards) for all of them.  As a legal intern, Owen worked for the AIDS Center of Queens County, the Sylvia Rivera Law Project and Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund at their headquarters.  In 2007, Owen was awarded the American Law Institute/American Bar Association Scholarship & Leadership Award for his leadership in the National Lawyer’s Guild, Outlaws LGBT Students Association, and Moot Court.

After graduating from law school, Owen co-founded the Transformative Justice Law Project of Illinois, a pro bono legal organization that provides holistic legal services to low income and homeless transgender people. With TJLP he has been a practicing attorney in the areas of criminal defense, deportation defense, and civil rights.  Owen has spoken at numerous universities, colleges, and law schools about transgender rights, the U.S. prison system, and immigration law as it pertains to gender non-conforming people.  He has also been a volunteer attorney at First Defense Legal Aid, Cabrini Green Legal Aid, and the Young Women’s Empowerment Project and is an adjunct instructor at DePaul University where he teaches classes on civil rights law, the criminal legal system, law and social movements, and gender and sexuality studies.

Before earning his law degree, Owen was a political organizer and disc jockey in Burlington, VT.  He worked as a lobbyist at the Vermont Statehouse where he lobbied for medical marijuana, statewide discrimination protection for transgender people, and anti-bullying laws in Vermont high schools. He also co-founded a national annual conference on transgender issues that is now in its tenth year.

Owen earned his B.A. in Women’s Studies from The University of Vermont and is a graduate of Oak Park & River Forest High School.  He is a member of the Chicago Bar Association.