Quick take: Dehlia Victoria Umunna

In 2015, Dehlia Victoria Umunna made history as Harvard’s first Nigerian law professor. Born on May 11, 1973 in London, Harvard Law School lists her as a Clinical Professor of Law and Faculty Deputy Director of its Criminal Justice Institute (CJI), where she supervises third-year law students in their representation of adult and juvenile clients in criminal and juvenile proceedings in Massachusetts Courts, including the Supreme Judicial Court. Her teaching interest and research, focus on Criminal Law, Criminal Defense and Theory, Mass Incarceration, and Race Issues.

She received a master’s degree from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government in Public Administration, and holds a B.A. in Communications from California State University, San Bernardino, in addition to a law degree from George Washington University Law Centre, where she was a guest lecturer for several years. From 2002 to 2007, Professor Umunna was an Adjunct Professor of Law and Practitioner in Residence at American University, Washington College of Law. She was also a board member of the District of Columbia Law Students in Court Clinic,

A proud mother of two, Edozie and Ifeanyi, prior to coming to Harvard, Professor Umunna spent several years at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia (PDS) as a trial attorney. At PDS, she was a felony one trial attorney, representing indigent clients, in hundreds of cases from misdemeanor charges of theft, assault, and drug possession, to kidnapping, child sexual abuse, rape, and homicide. Some of her cases received nationwide media attention. She also served as faculty training attorneys under the District of Columbia Criminal Justice Act.

Among her recognitions, she has received Harvard Law School’s Dean’s Award for Excellence, in acknowledgment of her outstanding service to the HLS community where she has excelled as a student supervisor, staff manager, lecturer, coach, and mentor, and the Southern Public Defender Training Center Outstanding Faculty Mentor of the Year Award.

Professor Umunna is a member of the Massachusetts, Maryland, and District of Columbia Bar Associations. Her article “Rethinking the Neighborhood Watch: How Lessons from Nigerian Villages Can Creatively Empower Communities to Assist Low-Income, Single Mothers In America,” was published in AM. U. J. GENDER, SOC. POL’Y & L. (Volume 20, Number 4).