Dehlia Umunna Becomes First Nigerian Professor at Harvard Law School

Dehlia is a mother of two kids. She is a trained Lawyer. Her teaching interest and research focus on Criminal Law, Criminal Defense and Theory, Mass Incarceration, and Race Issues. Recently, she became the first Nigerian Professor of Law in the offshores of Nigeria. She has been Lecturer overtime. She has served in various capacities as well, written several articles and received various awards and recognitions.

Some of her articles have been published in the American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law such as “Rethinking the Neighborhood Watch: How Lessons from the Nigerian Village Can Creatively Empower the Community to Assist Poor, Single Mothers in America.”

Dehlia Umunna holds a Master’s degree from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government in Public Administration while she previously holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from California State University, San Bernardino, and had his compulsory one year in a law school from George Washington University Law Center.

Some of where Dehlia has served include the District of Columbia Law Students in Court Clinic board. Also, as an Adjunct Professor of Law and Practitioner in Residence at American University and Washington College of Law. She has reportedly spent several years as a Public Defender, where she served as a trial attorney.

According to Harvard Law Today, Dehlia was promoted to serve as Faculty Deputy Director and Clinical Professor of Law at Harvard Law School’s Criminal Justice Institute (CJI).

Dehlia Umunna’s assigned duties as a Harvard Law Professor consists of governing third-year law students as they represent adult and juvenile clients in criminal and juvenile proceedings before Massachusetts’ Supreme Judicial Court and Appeals court.

In her words, “I relish this extraordinary opportunity to continue the work that I am truly passionate about, and I am grateful for the deep interest and commitment of the school to issues of criminal justice, mass incarceration, indigent defence, and social justice,” she said.

Martha Minow, Dean of Harvard Law School mentioned that “Dehlia’s students revere her; her colleagues at HLS and nationally look to her as an exemplary advocate, teacher, and mentor,”

We are proud to be associated with a successful Nigerian.