A Philadelphia native, Mira Baylson joined the Department of State as Executive Deputy Secretary in February 2023.
Baylson most recently practiced law at Cozen O’Connor in the state attorney general practice group where she advised corporate and individual clients on legal and regulatory issues, particularly related to the intersection of civil and criminal government enforcement. She also worked at the law firms of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld and Drinker Biddle & Reath.
Prior to Baylson’s experience in private practice, she was a public defender at the Defender Association of Philadelphia where she tried more than one hundred cases, ranging from misdemeanors to attempted murder, and several successful jury trials.
Baylson received a Bachelor of Arts degree with honors from Wesleyan University in 2004 and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School in 2008. She was the law school’s first recipient of the Langer, Grogan & Diver Fellowship in Social Justices and spent her fellowship developing Philadelphia’s Project Dawn Court, a first-in-the-nation, problem-solving court focused on women involved in commercial sexual exploitation and the criminal justice system.
After law school, Baylson completed two federal clerkships, first with the Honorable Anthony Scirica, Chief Judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, and then with the Honorable Joseph Irenas for the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey.
Prior to joining the Department of State, Baylson served on the boards of the Pennsylvania Innocence Project and the Public Interest Law Center and maintained a robust pro bono practice. She was a recipient of the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School’s Young Alumni Award and was named Best of the Bar 2022 by the Philadelphia Business Journal. She is also a member of the American Law Institute.
Baylson previously served as a poll worker.