Kristin Henning

Kristin Henning is the Blume Professor of Law and Director of the Juvenile Justice Clinic and Initiative at Georgetown Law, where she and her law students represent youth accused of crime in Washington, DC. Professor Henning served as the Law School’s Associate Dean for Clinics and Experiential Learning from 2017-2020. Kris was previously the Lead Attorney for the Juvenile Unit of the D.C. Public Defender Service and is currently the Director of the Mid-Atlantic Region of the Gault Center. Kris trains state actors across the country on the impact of racial bias in the courts and the traumatic effects of police contact and surveillance. Her workshops and webinars help stakeholders recognize their own biases and develop strategies to counter them. Kris also worked closely with the McArthur Foundation’s Juvenile Indigent Defense Action Network to develop a 41-volume Juvenile Training Immersion Program (JTIP), a national training curriculum for youth defenders. She now co-hosts, with the Gault Center (formerly the National Juvenile Defender Center), an annual week-long summer academy for trial lawyers and a series of “Train the Trainer” programs for experienced defenders. In 2019, Kris partnered with the Gault Center to launch a Racial Justice Toolkit for youth advocates, and again in 2020, to launch the Ambassadors for Racial Justice program, a year-long program for defenders committed to challenging racial inequities in the juvenile legal system through litigation and systemic reform. Kris writes extensively about race, adolescence, and policing. Her book, The Rage of Innocence: How America Criminalizes Black Youth, was published by Penguin Random House in September 2021 and was featured on the front page of the New York Times Book Review and received rave reviews in the Washington Post. The book was awarded a 2022 Media for a Just Society Award by Evident Change and the 2022 Social Justice Advocacy Award from the In the Margins Book Awards Committee. Henning has served on the Board of Directors for the Center for Children’s Law and Policy, was a Reporter for the ABA’s Juvenile Justice Standards Task Force, and is an Advisor to ALI’s Restatement on Children and the Law project. She has received many awards including a 2023 Embracing the Legacy Award from the RFK Community Alliance, a 2022 Women of Distinction Award from the American Association of University Women, the 2021 Juvenile Leadership Prize from the Juvenile Law Center, and the Robert E. Shepherd, Jr. Award for Excellence in Juvenile Defense by the Gault Center.