Ian Marcus Amelkin has been a public defender for more than a decade. He joined the Federal Defenders in 2017 and previously worked as a staff attorney in Legal Aid Society’s Criminal Defense Practice and as an associate at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP. He clerked for the Honorable Myron H. Thompson of the Middle District of Alabama and the Honorable Chester J. Straub of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Mr. Marcus Amelkin graduated with high distinction from the University of Virginia and cum laude from New York University School of Law, where he was a Root-Tilden-Kern Scholar and a student in the Federal Defender Clinic.
Mr. Marcus Amelkin teaches the federal defense seminar and externship at Columbia Law School and criminal procedure at Brooklyn Law School. In August 2025, he will join the faculty of Hofstra Law School as an Associate Professor of Law teaching criminal law, criminal procedure, and criminal justice focused seminars.