Jennifer Stolarski

Since earning her law degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1999, Jennifer Stolarski has focused her legal career on working to end domestic violence.  As a result, she has a gained deep, practical experience with both the criminal and civil justice systems and their response to domestic violence.  Currently, she is the Chief of Staff and a Chief Assistant District Attorney in the Office of the DeKalb County District Attorney in the metro-Atlanta area. In addition to her responsibilities related to managing one of the largest prosecutor offices in Georgia, Stolarski oversees the Victim-Witness Advocacy Program and the Special Victims Division which prosecutes domestic violence and sexual assault, elder and disabled adult abuse, crimes against children and human trafficking cases. During her 15-year tenure as a prosecutor, she has prosecuted high-risk domestic violence cases, worked on domestic violence-related legislation and created initiatives to better serve and protect survivors. She currently co-chairs the national Association of Prosecuting Attorneys’ Domestic Violence Committee which brings the nation’s leading working DV prosecutors and victim advocates together to advance the field of domestic violence prosecution and address the needs of DV prosecutors, managers, and victim advocates.

 

Stolarski’s current work within the criminal justice system is informed by her years of representing indigent domestic violence survivors in civil matters. As a former staff attorney with Georgia Legal Services, Jennifer represented indigent survivors in a wide variety of civil matters including domestic relations, housing and public benefits. Additionally, as a former Director of the Domestic Violence Project with the Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation (AVLF), Jennifer developed and managed a pro bono legal assistance program for survivors of domestic violence. In 2009, while with AVLF, she founded the Safe Families Office which is a survivor-centered, lawyer-staffed center providing legal and support services to survivors at the Fulton County Courthouse.  Now in its twelfth year, the Safe Families Office has served thousands of survivors and has been described by the American Bar Association’s Commission on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault as a “model best practices program”. 

 

Throughout her career, Stolarski has shared her expertise and passion for ending domestic violence by training law enforcement, prosecutors, attorneys, judges and community members. She particularly enjoys teaching and working with law students.