Laura Cohen
Professor of Law, Justice Virginia Long Scholar, Director of the Rutgers Criminal and Youth Justice Clinic, Director of the New Jersey Innocence Project at Rutgers University, and Director of the Center on Criminal Justice, Youth Rights, and Race
Laura Cohen formerly worked for the New York City Legal Aid Society’s Juvenile Rights Division. She’s written articles on juvenile justice, parole, legal ethics, lawyering theory and the legal representation of adolescents. She’s also spearheaded several important amicus briefs before the New Jersey Supreme Court on juvenile justice matters.
Biography
Laura Cohen is a Professor of Law, the Justice Virginia Long Scholar, and Director of both the Criminal and Youth Justice Clinic (CYJC) and the New Jersey Innocence Project at Rutgers Law School. The CYJC’s mission of providing post-conviction legal representation to clients incarcerated as adolescents in matters ranging from conditions of confinement and actual innocence to parole and executive clemency is unique among the nation’s law school clinics. The clinic’s advocacy has led to exonerations and early release of scores of clients over the past two decades. Professor Cohen also founded and directs the Rutgers Center on Criminal Justice, Youth Rights, and Race.
In 2020, Professor Cohen served as the International Legal Foundation’s inaugural UNICEF Juvenile Justice Fellow in Myanmar, where she worked with local lawyers to build a system of youth defense. From 2013-2017, she was the due process consultant to the United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division in its investigation of systemic constitutional violations in the St. Louis County, Missouri Juvenile Court. She frequently appears as and on behalf of amicus curiae in matters concerning youth and criminal justice issues before the New Jersey Supreme Court, the Appellate Division, and the federal courts.
Prior to joining the Rutgers faculty, Professor Cohen was the Director of Training for the New York City Legal Aid Society’s Juvenile Rights Division, where she oversaw the attorney training program and public policy initiatives relating to child welfare and juvenile justice. She also has served as Deputy Court Monitor for the U.S. District Court, District of Puerto Rico in Morales Feliciano v. Hernandez Colon, a federal class action challenging conditions of confinement in Puerto Rico’s prisons; Senior Policy Analyst for the Violence Institute of New Jersey; and staff attorney for the Legal Aid Society’s Juvenile Rights Division in the Bronx.
Professor Cohen is the recipient of numerous awards for her work, including the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s “Champion for Change” award; the National Juvenile Defender Center’s Robert E. Shepherd Award for Excellence in Juvenile Defense; the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey’s Legal Leadership Award, and the Rutgers National Lawyers Guild Arthur Kinoy Award. Her scholarship explores topics ranging from juvenile justice and parole to legal ethics and lawyering theory, with a particular focus on the legal representation of adolescents.
Professor Cohen earned her B.A. summa cum laude from Rutgers College, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and her J.D. from Columbia Law School, where she was Managing Editor of the Columbia Human Rights Law Review.
Publications
Books and Book Chapters
KRISTIN HENNING, LAURA COHEN, AND ELLEN MARRUS, EDS., RIGHTS, RACE, AND REFORM: 50 YEARS OF CHILD ADVOCACY IN THE JUVENILE JUSTICE SYSTEM (Routledge, 2018)
LAURA COHEN, THE GAULT CASE AND YOUNG PEOPLE’S RIGHTS: DEBATING SUPREME COURT DECISIONS (Enslow Publishers, Inc., 2006)
Laura Cohen, I Want In: The Story of a Life Redeemed, in FRANK ASKIN, YOU CAN TELL IT TO THE JUDGE . . . TRUE TALES OF LAW SCHOOL LAWYERING (2009)
Law Review Articles and Essays
The Anti-Racist Imperative of Infancy, 19 NORTHWESTERN JOURNAL OF LAW AND SOCIAL POLICY 177 (2024).
Barriers to Innocence: Identifying, Investigating, and Undoing Wrongful Convictions, 75 RUTGERS L. REV. (2024)
Incarcerated Youth and COVID-19: Notes from the Field, 73 RUTGERS L. REV. 1475 (2021)
The Critical Role of Post-Disposition Representation in Addressing the Needs of Incarcerated Youth, 48 JOHN MARSHALL LAW JOURNAL 311 (2015) (with Sandra Simkins)
Extend the Guiding Hand: Incarcerated Youth, Law School Clinics, and Expanding Access to Counsel, 17 UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA JOURNAL OF LAW SOCIAL CHANGE 410 (2014)
Freedom’s Road: Youth, Parole, and the Promise of Miller v. Alabama and Graham v. Florida, 35 CARDOZO LAW REVIEW 1031 (2013)
Introduction: When the Law is Guilty: Confronting the Crisis of Mass Incarceration, 66 RUTGERS LAW REVIEW 841 (2014)
Introduction: Righting the Wronged: Causes, Effects, and Remedies of Juvenile Wrongful Conviction, 62 RUTGERS LAW REVIEW 879 (2010)
Kids Will Be Kids: Interviewing and Counseling Adolescent Clients, 79 TEMPLE LAW REVIEW 357 (2006) (with Randi Mandelbaum)
Kids, Courts, and Cameras: New Challenges for Juvenile Defenders, 18 QUINNIPIAC LAW REVIEW 701 (1999)
Professional Journals
When Parents Are Not Enough: The Case for Counsel in Juvenile Interrogations, 34 ABA CRIMINAL JUSTICE (Winter 2020)
The Reasonable Black Child: Youth, Race, and the Fourth Amendment, 33 ABA CRIMINAL JUSTICE (Fall 2018)
Cruel and Unusual: The Senseless Stigmatization of Youth Registries, ABA CRIMINAL JUSTICE (Spring 2018)
Making Miller Matter: Youth, Parole, and a “Meaningful Opportunity for Release” 32 ABA CRIMINAL JUSTICE (Summer 2018) (with law students Nicholas Kiriakatos and Patrick Kouyialis) .
The Still-Elusive Promise of In re Gault, 32 ABA CRIMINAL JUSTICE (Winter 2018)
Reforming the Juvenile Justice System, NEW JERSEY LAWYER 42 (October 2015)
Selected Opinion Pieces
N.J. Is Making Progress, But Youth Need More Help to Stay Out of Prison’s Web, www.nj.com (February 17, 2022) (with Emilie Stewart)
Excessive Punishment for Kids Who Use Marijuana Is Not the Answer, www.nj.com (February 21, 2021)
The Shifting Winds of Juvenile Justice, NEWARK STAR-LEDGER (August 16, 2015)
The Heartbreaking, Preventable Death of Kalief Browder, NEWARK STAR-LEDGER (June 14, 2015)(with Alexander Shalom)
Think Twice Before Trying Young Offenders as Adults, NEWARK STAR-LEDGER (September 16, 2012)