Keith Wattley

Keith Wattley, Founder and Executive Director of UnCommon Law, received his B.A. in Psychology from Indiana University and his J.D. from Santa Clara University School of Law. He has been advocating for the rights of people in prison and on parole for more than 20 years. Prior to launching UnCommon Law in 2006, Keith was a staff attorney at the Prison Law Office, a nonprofit law firm in Berkeley. At UnCommon Law, he has focused on helping people transform their lives and demonstrate to the parole board that they can safely be released from their life sentences. He has also engaged in impact litigation and individual cases involving unlawful prison and parole conditions, and he has trained hundreds of lawyers, law students and others in advocating for the rights of incarcerated people.

In 2018, Keith was selected as one of the Obama Foundation’s inaugural Fellows, in recognition of his unique legal model and vision. In 2020, he was awarded the James Irvine Foundation’s Leadership Award. Keith has been active on several boards of directors, and is co-chair of the Institutional Review Board (human subjects committee) for the National Council on Crime and Delinquency. He was also a member of the Founding Board of Directors for the Prison University Project (San Quentin’s College Program) and a member of the Board of Directors for Legal Services for Prisoners with Children. Keith currently teaches a course titled “California Prisons and Discretionary Parole” at UC Berkeley School of Law where he also supervises the Post-Conviction Advocacy Project.