B.A., Emory University
J.D., George Washington University

Mr. Alpern is Director of Quality Enhancement for Criminal Defense Trials at the New York State Office of Indigent Legal Services. After graduating from law school in 1989, Mr. Alpern joined the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia where he worked for 10 years in a variety of capacities including Deputy Chief of the Trial Division and Senior Litigation Attorney. During the majority of Mr. Alpern's tenure at PDS, he represented clients charged with high level felony offenses including homicides, sexual assaults, and other violent crimes.  From 1999 to 2005, Mr. Alpern served as a Deputy Capital Defender with the New York State Capital Defender Office representing indigent persons facing the death penalty. At CDO, Mr. Alpern's responsibilities included determining and implementing guilt and penalty phase trial strategies, conducting intensive factual investigation, developing mitigation evidence, and providing support, training and consultation for the capital defense bar.  In 2005, after the elimination of the death penalty in New York State, Mr. Alpern entered private practice with The Proskin Law Firm where he represented both indigent and retained clients accused of criminal offenses. From 2007 to 2012, Mr. Alpern returned to full time representation of indigent clients as a trial attorney with the Albany County Office of the Alternate Public Defender.

Mr. Alpern also currently serves on the faculty of the Monroe County Public Defender Office's Western New York Advanced Trial Skills Program and as a guest lecturer for the Oneida County Public Defender Office's Trial Academy and Assigned Counsel School.