Porsha-Shaf’on Venable received her J.D. from California Western School of Law and her MSW from New York University School of Social Work. She worked at Bronx Defenders as a forensic social worker. In that role, she first worked for three years with adolescents and then with senior felony attorneys assisting with cases ranging from assaults to homicides. After attending law school in California, she returned to Bronx Defenders as a staff attorney. During her almost seven-year tenure as a lawyer at Bronx Defenders, she held a variety of positions, including attorney for the Adolescent Defense Project, in which she defended young people age 14-16 charged with violent felony offenses, and team leader, where she was the point person for a holistic team of lawyers and advocates from all practice areas. In 2017, she joined the Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem. There she is a staff attorney on a holistic team that represents client residents of Manhattan charged with offenses ranging from drug possession to attempted murder.