Zachary Kalinowski

The greatest domestic power the state holds is the power to incarcerate with impunity. The legitimacy of this system rests on the constitutionally enumerated protections provided to criminal defendants. My work centers around ensuring that the state honors the promises made on its behalf when the Bill of Rights was ratified in 1791.

I have been a practicing attorney since graduating from Washington University School of Law in 2022. While a student at Wash University, I practiced as a Student Attorney for the Washington University First Amendment Clinic. There, I defended the rights of individuals against state overreach on a pro bono basis. As the co-president of the Washington University Energy and Environmental Law Society, I also organized events and a broader symposium focusing on racial justice and reform in the wake of the 2020 George Floyd protests.

Upon graduation, I worked for a civil law firm in San Francisco, where my practice focused predominantly on intellectual property and privacy litigation for technology and start-up clients. More important to me was my robust pro bono practice, where I primarily represented individuals who had suffered from police or correctional abuse or had otherwise been wronged by the criminal justice system. This included direct advocacy for impacted individuals as well as encouraging systemic change through impact litigation.

I joined Beles & Beles in 2024 to complete my pivot to criminal law, which was my inspiration to go to law school in the first place in 2019. I am privileged to have the opportunity to protect the rights of those facing the Goliath of the criminal justice system and to act as a representative for both my clients and the Constitution. Your rights are not contingent on the light in which the prosecution paints you. I will work tirelessly to ensure that errors committed in the trial court are identified, argued, and corrected.

Current Employment Position(s)

Criminal Appeals and Post-Conviction Relief

Education

Law School: Washington University in Saint Louis School of Law, Saint Louis, Missouri, 2022

Undergraduate Degree: California State University, Chico, 2017