Yazmin Cader Frazier is better documented in professional records as Yasmin Cader, an attorney whose career has included public defense, federal civil-rights work, legal training, private practice, and senior leadership at the American Civil Liberties Union. While some entertainment and editorial-photo records use “Yazmin Cader Frazier,” authoritative professional sources consistently identify her as Yasmin Cader. Her public record is therefore much broader than her marriage to television presenter Kevin Frazier.
Her career stretches from political science studies at Howard University and Yale Law School to decades of courtroom work and national civil-rights leadership. She has also spoken directly about the experiences that influenced her decision to become a public defender, the values she brings to leadership, and the role her upbringing played in shaping her understanding of justice.
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| Professional name | Yasmin Cader |
| Education | Howard University; Yale Law School, Class of 1992 |
| Legal career | Public defense, civil-rights work, private practice |
| ACLU role | Deputy Executive Director for Program, Strategy, and Culture |
| Public-defense experience | Approximately 23 years |
| Private practice | Co-founded Cader Adams Trial Lawyers in 2019 |
| Spouse | Kevin Frazier |
| Children | Sons Shane and Reece |
Professional Records Identify Her as Yasmin Cader
Although the search name Yazmin Cader Frazier appears in some entertainment coverage and editorial-photo descriptions, her professional identity is consistently recorded as Yasmin Cader by the ACLU, Yale Law School, and other legal institutions. Available authoritative material does not establish Frazier as her formal professional surname.
Cader has said that she grew up in the Rondo community of St. Paul, Minnesota. In a first-person ACLU essay published in 2026, she described Rondo as a historically Black community where ideas of mutual support, dignity, and justice were part of her early surroundings. She also discussed how the community had been affected by highway construction that displaced residents and disrupted neighborhood life.
Her own account gives useful context for her later work without requiring assumptions about her childhood. The strongest available material focuses on the social environment she experienced and the way questions of fairness and justice became part of her thinking.
Howard University and Yale Law School Shaped Her Legal Path
Cader attended Howard University, where she studied political science and graduated in 1989. She later said that she had initially expected to pursue public policy instead of building a career in public defense. After Howard, she continued directly to Yale Law School and graduated with the Class of 1992.
Her early professional path included a federal judicial clerkship with Judge Damon J. Keith. Cader has described Keith as an important influence on her career, and she has said that the clerkship helped lead her toward work in the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division.
She participated in the Justice Department’s Honors Program and worked in employment litigation. That experience placed civil-rights law near the beginning of her career, but it was not yet the field in which she would spend most of the next two decades.
Her direction changed as she became more closely exposed to the criminal-court system. She recalled that seeing many Black adults and young people entering a Washington courthouse in 1995 helped steer her toward public defense.
Public Defense Became the Core of Her Early Career
Cader began working as a public defender in 1995 and spent approximately 23 years in that area of law. Her public-defense career took her through Washington, D.C., New York, and Los Angeles.
Her casework involved both juveniles and adults and ranged from misdemeanor matters to serious felony and capital cases. This work formed the longest documented phase of her early professional life and later informed her broader civil-rights responsibilities.
Cader has connected the decision to enter public defense not only to what she saw in court but also to experiences from her school years. In her 2026 ACLU essay, she discussed how drugs and addiction affected people around her and recalled the impact of policing, aggressive enforcement, and incarceration during the broader war on drugs. Those experiences ultimately influenced the legal path she chose to pursue.
Her account provides a first-hand explanation for why public defense became central to her career rather than simply presenting it as another job in a résumé.
Her Career Expanded Into Legal Training and Private Practice
Cader’s responsibilities eventually expanded beyond representing individual clients. She served as Chief of Training in the Federal Public Defender’s Office in Los Angeles, where she was responsible for helping develop lawyers and strengthen advocacy skills.
Yale Law School later reported that training programs she developed there were used as models beyond the office. Her professional work also included teaching experience connected with NYU, UCLA, and Wayne State.
She participated in additional mentoring and legal-training work through organizations and programs including Gideon’s Promise, the National Criminal Defense College, and Harvard’s Trial Advocacy Workshop. These roles placed professional education alongside courtroom advocacy as a recurring part of her career.
In 2019, Cader and attorney Christine Adams co-founded Cader Adams Trial Lawyers in Los Angeles. The firm worked across criminal and civil litigation, white-collar cases, and racial-equity matters involving organizations. The 2019 move marked her transition from public-defense work into private practice, where the firm’s documented work included criminal, civil, white-collar, and racial-equity matters.
Her professional achievements include becoming a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers.
Her ACLU Role Expanded From Legal Leadership to Executive Leadership
Cader entered a major new phase of her career when the ACLU announced in July 2021 that she had been selected to lead its Trone Center for Justice and Equality. She officially took on the position on September 15, 2021.
In that position, and through her work as an ACLU Deputy Legal Director, her responsibilities covered a broad range of criminal-legal and racial-justice issues. These included policing, cash bail, the rights of incarcerated people, capital punishment, education, housing, employment, and economic opportunity.
Her position expanded further in 2026. On July 1, 2026, the ACLU announced that Cader had become Deputy Executive Director for Program, Strategy, and Culture. The appointment moved her from leadership of a major legal program into a broader executive role involving organizational strategy and programmatic work.
The promotion updated her official position beyond the Trone Center title still shown on some older professional profiles. The July 2026 ACLU announcement provides the clearest current description of her role.
Cader remained publicly active in ACLU legal advocacy after the promotion. In August 2026, she authored an article discussing coordinated legal claims involving alleged misconduct by federal immigration agents and the use of legal processes to pursue accountability.
Her Own Interviews Explain What Motivated the Work
Cader has provided unusually detailed first-hand explanations of the ideas and experiences behind her career choices. Her comments about growing up in St. Paul’s Rondo community connect her professional interests with experiences she encountered long before law school.
She has also described an early family experience involving housing discrimination. Cader said her mother told her that her parents had encountered rental-housing discrimination when she was a baby. She recalled another childhood moment in which her mother helped explain apartheid to her when she was around 10, contributing to her early awareness of racial injustice.
In discussing her own outlook, Cader has called herself a “practical optimist.” She has explained that this means recognizing difficult present conditions while still believing change remains possible. Her comments on criminal-justice reform have also emphasized the value of redemption rather than relying entirely on punishment.
In discussing leadership, Cader praised integrity and empathy in leaders she admired while describing collaboration, communication, listening, and continued learning as important to her own approach. She has discussed the importance of being direct while also creating space for colleagues to participate authentically.
Cader has also spoken about the challenge of engaging people who hold different views. Rather than assuming every disagreement is fixed, she has argued that difficult conversations can sometimes create movement. In discussing demanding advocacy work, she has emphasized the need for people to maintain enough personal support and capacity to participate effectively.
Among the people she has identified as important influences are Judge Damon J. Keith and civil-rights educator Septima Poinsette Clark, whom Cader described as her husband’s great-aunt.
Her Marriage and Children Are Publicly Documented
Cader’s family life is less extensively documented than her legal career, but several basic details are supported by contemporary reporting and her own later comments.
She married television presenter Kevin Frazier in Malibu over Thanksgiving weekend in 2006. Contemporary reporting confirms the weekend and year, although the strongest material reviewed does not establish one exact calendar date.
The couple welcomed their son Shane on February 5, 2007. Their younger son, Reece Cader Frazier, was born on July 5, 2010. Established entertainment outlets documented both births when they occurred.
Cader later confirmed the broader family picture herself. During a 2024 interview, she said she had two teenagers, then aged 17 and 14, consistent with Shane and Reece’s reported birth years.
Contemporary reporting also noted that Kevin Frazier’s older son, Tony, attended the couple’s 2006 wedding.
Her family record is therefore clear enough to establish her marriage and two children without making broader claims about private household dynamics or lifestyle.
Her Verified Record Centers on Public Defense and Civil Rights Leadership
The strongest documented picture of Yazmin Cader Frazier is the professional record of Yasmin Cader: a Howard University and Yale Law School graduate who moved from federal civil-rights work into a public-defense career that lasted more than two decades.
She later combined courtroom experience with attorney training, teaching, and private practice before joining the ACLU’s national leadership. Her 2021 appointment to lead the Trone Center for Justice and Equality was followed by a wider executive role in July 2026 as Deputy Executive Director for Program, Strategy, and Culture.
Her own interviews add useful context to that chronology. She has connected her legal career to experiences in St. Paul, observations of the criminal-court system, family experiences with discrimination, and a stated belief in practical optimism, empathy, collaboration, and the possibility of reform.
Her marriage to Kevin Frazier is part of her public biography. Still, the available verified evidence establishes a much more substantial independent record centered on public defense, legal education, civil-rights advocacy, and ACLU leadership.
Fact-checking note: This profile was prepared from the verified sources reviewed during the research process. Unsupported and unconfirmed claims were excluded.