Emily Coward

Research Attorney

Emily Coward is a member of the School of Government’s Indigent Defense Education group and serves as the Project Attorney for the NC Racial Equity Network, formed in 2014. Coward received the Margaret Taylor Writing Award in 2015 for her work on Raising Issues of Race in North Carolina Criminal Cases. In recognition of her work on issues of race and criminal justice, she received the James E. Williams award in 2016 from the North Carolina Public Defenders Association. Before joining the School in 2012, Coward served as a law clerk for Judge James Robertson of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia from 2006 to 2008 and for Justice Thembile Skweyiya of the Constitutional Court of South Africa in 2009. From 2009 to 2011, she represented clients in civil and post-conviction matters as a staff attorney with North Carolina Prisoner Legal Services. She earned a BA from Oberlin College and a JD magna cum laude from Duke University School of Law.