About Jill
Jill Polster built a path to criminal law that begins in sociology and winds through public defense, prosecution and international work. She earned a B.A. in sociology from Ithaca College in 1984 and received her J.D. from Georgia State University College of Law in 2001.
Her early legal years were spent at the trial level. She clerked at The Steel Law Office, P.C. in 1999. After law school she joined the Fulton County Public Defender’s Office as a staff lawyer in 2001. Two years later she moved into a senior staff lawyer role at Metro Conflict Defender, handling complex assignments that often paired serious charges with heavy caseloads.
Polster shifted roles again in 2008 when she became a Senior Assistant District Lawyer in the DeKalb District Lawyer’s Office in Decatur, Georgia. That experience put her on the prosecutorial side of the courtroom and broadened her view of criminal charging and case preparation. In 2009 she served as a visiting professional in the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, an assignment that exposed her to international criminal procedures and cross-border investigative work. She also taught trial skills in the Kessler-Eidson Trial Techniques Program at Emory University School of Law from 2010 to 2012.
In 2012 Polster took on a leadership role as Managing Partner at Cohen & Hirsch Criminal Defense. That position followed a string of public service and advocacy roles dating back to her co-founding of the Georgia Innocence Project in 1999, where she continues as an emeritus board member. Since 2012 she has served as a legal advisor to Peachtree NORML and the Georgia C.A.R.E. Project. She is a current member of the DeKalb Bar Association and the Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and has belonged to NORML since 2012 and to the National Cannabis Bar Association since 2016.
Her career crosses the usual divides. She has experience defending clients in state court, representing the state as a prosecutor, and observing international prosecution at the ICC. She has also taught trial techniques to law students and young lawyers. Polster is admitted in Maine and Georgia and is admitted to practice before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. She currently practices at Cohen & Hirsch Criminal Defense, handling criminal defense cases.
