Laura Cohen is a Distinguished Clinical Professor of Law, the Justice Virginia Long Scholar, and Director of both the New Jersey Innocence Project at Rutgers University and the Criminal and Youth Justice Clinic (CYJC) at Rutgers Law School. In addition to its actual innocence work, the CYJC provides post-conviction legal representation to clients incarcerated as adolescents in parole, executive clemency, re-sentencing, and conditions of confinement-related matters, among others. Laura also founded and directs the Rutgers Center on Criminal Justice, Youth Rights, and Race. One of the country’s leading experts on youth justice and the legal representation of children and adolescents, Laura served as the International Legal Foundation’s inaugural UNICEF Juvenile Justice Fellow in Myanmar in 2020. From 2013-2017, she was the due process consultant to the United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division in its investigation of systemic constitutional violations in the St. Louis County, Missouri Juvenile Court.