Prof. D'lorah L Hughes

H. Wendell Cherry Associate Professor of Law and Director of Clinics and Externships

Professor Hughes, H. Wendell Cherry Associate Clinical Professor of Law, joined the UK Rosenberg College of Law in June 2022 and serves as the Director of Legal Clinics and Externships.

A native of Lexington, Professor Hughes returned to Kentucky from the University of California, Irvine School of Law where she was Director of Externships. Professor Hughes has also held academic positions at the University of Arkansas School of Law-Fayetteville, Case Western Reserve University School of Law, and Wayne State University Law School.

She has directed and taught clinics in the areas of juvenile law, criminal law, and health law, and she developed a post-conviction clinic in response to the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Miller v. Alabama/Jackson v. Hobbs, which held that mandatory life-without-parole sentences for all children 17 or younger convicted of homicide are unconstitutional.

Professor Hughes received her JD from Duke University Law School and her BA in Liberal Arts with a concentration in Sociology from California State University, Long Beach. A first-generation college student and lawyer, she previously practiced law as a deputy public defender for the Orange County Public Defender’s Office in California and as a staff attorney at the AIDS Legal Assistance Project at the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley. Additionally, she served as a judicial clerk in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas.

She holds leadership positions on the Board of Directors for the Clinical Legal Education Association (CLEA) and was recently appointed to the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government Ethics Commission. A member of the Central Kentucky Chapter of the American Inns of Court and a Kentucky Colonel, Professor Hughes serves as the faculty advisor to the First-Generation Professionals and as co-advisor to the Trial Advocacy Board.