Ramya Krishnan is a senior staff attorney at the Knight First Amendment Institute and a lecturer in law at Columbia Law School. Her litigation focuses on issues related to government transparency, protest, privacy, and social media.

Krishnan leads the Knight Institute’s litigation in National Association of Immigration Judges v. Neal, which challenges government policies that gag the nation’s immigration judges. She was a central member of the team challenging “prepublication review,” a far-reaching censorship system that prohibits millions of former public servants from speaking without first obtaining government approval. She has authored amicus briefs defending state privacy laws from First Amendment challenge, challenging retaliatory deportations against immigrant activists, and supporting the right of state contractors to engage in BDS boycotts. She has also led the Institute’s advocacy efforts calling on Congress to establish a legal safe harbor for platform research.

Krishnan has been published or quoted in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and Slate, among other publications. She was the Knight Institute’s inaugural legal fellow. Prior to joining the Institute, she worked at Australia’s Attorney-General’s Department, where she litigated constitutional and administrative law cases, including in the High Court of Australia. From 2013-2014, she served as law clerk for the Hon. Robert Beech Jones of the Supreme Court of New South Wales.

Krishnan holds a B.A. and LL.B. (First Class Honors) from the University of Sydney, where she served as an editor of the Sydney Law Review, and an LL.M. from Columbia Law School, where she was a Raymond J. Baer Scholar.