Kristina Kersey
Kristina Kersey
Education
Professor Kersey earned her J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center and her B.A. from Rutgers University. Upon graduating law school, she clerked for the Honorable Lawrence M. Lawson, A.J.S.C (retired) in Monmouth County, New Jersey.
About
Professor Kristina Kersey joined the University of Tennessee College of Law in 2023, where she teaches in the Advocacy Clinic. Her scholarship focuses on the juvenile carceral system and youth rights.
Professor Kersey brings over two decades of experience in the field of youth defense to UT. Before joining UT she was Senior Youth Defense Counsel at The Gault Center: Defenders of Youth Rights (formerly The National Juvenile Defender Center), a national nonprofit dedicated to the zealous representation of youth. She facilitated national training on trial skills and racial justice, co-creating curricula focusing on structural racism and juvenile court. She wrote creative and informative “Top 10” missives to the national youth defense community including a piece entitled “Jones v. Mississippi, Keeping up with the Joneses: 10 things I kinda maybe don’t hate about Jones.” At the Gault Center, she served as the liaison to the ABA Juvenile Justice Standards subcommittee, led national youth defense technical assistance, consulted on trial and appellate strategy, and was qualified and testified as an expert witness in the field of youth defense.
Prior to joining the Gault Center, she worked for the New Jersey Office of the Public Defender for over 18 years, specializing in youth defense. She was the trial attorney in State in the Interest of N.H. in which the New Jersey Supreme Court held that youth are entitled to full and complete discovery prior to a transfer hearing for adult prosecution. Her advocacy extended beyond the courtroom as she led several statewide initiatives including representation of all detained youth at every hearing including holidays and weekends, expungement assistance for youth clients, and post-disposition advocacy for incarcerated youth. She was a member of the New Jersey Council on Juvenile Justice and System Improvement, a member of the OPD Juvenile Training Committee and was the First Assistant Deputy Public Defender in the Essex juvenile unit prior to her departure from the agency.