Laura Matthews-Jolly

Laura Matthews-Jolly joined the NCCU School of Law faculty in 2022. Prior to NCCU, she was a clinical teaching fellow at Loyola University Chicago School of Law, where she co-taught the Child Law Clinic and supervised students in their direct representation of clients in both child welfare and high-conflict custody cases. At Loyola, she additionally taught Trial Practice and Family Law. Her research focuses on the government’s regulation and policing of families, exploring the intersection of parental rights and race, gender, and poverty.

Her research interests are informed by her decade of experience representing parents, children, and families in both child welfare and immigration proceedings. Prior to entering academia, she was a public defender in the family defense practice at Brooklyn Defender Services, where she represented hundreds of parents at risk of losing their children to foster care. In that capacity, she focused on keeping families together and protecting her clients’ fundamental right to parent. She also was an Equal Justice Works Fellow at the City Bar Justice Center, representing immigrant youth survivors of labor and sex trafficking. Professor Matthews-Jolly additionally served in the Office of General Counsel at the New York City Department of Education and as law clerk to the Honorable Melvin Gelade in the New Jersey Superior Court. Prior to law school, she was a Fulbright scholar in South Korea.

Her years of public interest practice inspire her teaching philosophy and passion. She seeks to deconstruct the principles and practices of law that are meaningful for students, not only for professional development, but also as a means of amplifying the role that advocacy plays within law. Professor Matthews-Jolly earned her B.A. from Vassar College and her J.D. from the City University of New York School of Law.