When it comes to fighting the government, Molly Parmer is a natural.

She is tough, intelligent, and fearless, and was born to be a criminal defense attorney.

Molly was named a Robert Woodruff Fellow – the highest honor bestowed on an incoming student – at Emory University School of Law, where she received a full-tuition scholarship.

She was the founding president of the Criminal Law Society, a member of Moot Court, and on the executive board of the Emory Public Interest Committee.

She received a number of awards in law school, including Outstanding Oralist at the Duberstein International Moot Court competition in New York and the Dean’s Award for Criminal Litigation. She was also featured alongside a number of judges, politicians, and prominent attorneys in Advancing the Rule of Law: A Century of Excellence at Emory Law, a publication celebrating the school’s centennial anniversary.

Following law school, Molly took a job as an assistant public defender in DeKalb County, Georgia, where she represented thousands of clients on charges ranging from reckless driving to murder. She successfully defended cases in municipal, state, and superior court, and developed her skills in handling every type of proceeding, from first appearances to jury trials.

Molly joined the Federal Defender Program in the Northern District of Georgia as a trial attorney in 2015. There, she defended those accused of drug trafficking, international money laundering, war crimes, violations of human rights, firearms violations, immigration offenses, child pornography, and allegations of white-collar crime, to name a few. In addition to federal trial experience, Molly also wrote appeals and presented oral argument in front of the 11th Circuit.

Molly is a graduate of the Bill Daniels Trial Academy, the National College of Criminal Defense, and the White Collar Crime College presented by the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

She is an adjunct professor at Emory Law, where she teaches Advanced Criminal Trial Practice and has presented seminars on criminal defense for Lawyers for Equal Justice and the Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

She presently serves on the board of directors for the Georgia Innocence Project and on the alumni board for Emory Law, and She presently serves on the board of directors for the Georgia Innocence Project and on the alumni board for Emory Law, and is featured regularly as a legal analyst on Court TV.

In addition to being a practicing criminal defense attorney, Erin Gerstenzang founder of What Lawyers Do, LLC, has spent 15 years speaking and planning legal education programs for lawyers. 

She is known as a dynamic, engaging legal educator who studies industry best practices and molds them into systems that anyone can use.

Early on in her career as a trial attorney, Erin discovered a passion for helping other professionals improve their craft, and she built a national reputation as a sought-after speaker on a variety of topics ranging from trial techniques to design-thinking for law firms. 

As top-rated speaker at legal conferences nationwide, she has honed her skills to capture, organize and distill valuable lessons from expert practitioners to help lawyers get smarter, faster.

She has chaired numerous legal events including the Georgia Public Defender Counsel’s DUI Trial Strategies Annual Program for 7 years running, and she both chaired and redesigned the Georgia Association for Women Lawyers year-long Leadership Academy and was awarded the GAWL Visionary Award in 2019 for those efforts.

She currently sits on the Planning Board of the American Bar Association's TECHSHOW, and is on the Faculty of the National College for DUI Defense (NCDD). 

In 2020 Erin was recognized by Law.com’s Fulton Daily Report as one of the Best Mentors in Georgia. She was honored by Fastcase 50 in 2018 and recognized by the ABA's Legal Technology Resource Center as one of the honorees of the Women in Legal Tech 2019.

In her free time, she also serves on the State Bar of Georgia’s Disciplinary Rules and Procedures Committee and chairs the Judicial Recommendation Committee of the Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys. She was the recipient of the GACDL President’s Award in January 2020. 


Combining both her trial skills, talent for speaking, and deep understanding of the needs of practicing lawyers, she excels at reducing the complicated and difficult down to the simple and actionable.