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Alumni Spotlight: Anjelica Hendricks ’15L Anjelica Hendricks is an Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School where she focuses on criminal law.
Anjelica Hendricks ‘15L was born and raised in Richmond, Virginia. She graduated from James Madison University in 2012, where she double majored in Philosophy and Political Science. In law school, Anjelica interned for several public defender offices and enjoyed her time in W&L Law’s Criminal Justice Clinic. After graduating, Anjelica joined the Defender Association of Philadelphia, where she represented indigent clients for several years. Currently, Anjelica is an Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, where she researches and teaches on areas of criminal procedure and policing.
Discuss your career path and how it led you to working for The University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School.
I never thought I would be a law professor. While in law school my only trajectory was public defense, which was a truly rewarding and humbling experience—I miss being in the courtroom. However, while litigating my cases I saw a common pattern, police misconduct and abuse of authority, which compelled me to pivot to policy work. I secured a position with Philadelphia’s Police Advisory Commission, which was then the civilian oversight agency of the police department, and it allowed me deeper access to policing. One project that I started was a review of the department’s disciplinary process, which led me to network with interdisciplinary scholars nearby, many at Penn. After our project concluded, I was given an amazing opportunity to do a Penn fellowship to help me transition to the academy. The fellowship helped me create my scholarly identity and find a place in legal literature that could use my uniquely situated perspective. At the end of these fellowships, candidates go on the tenure track job market, and I was so very grateful that Penn extended me an offer to stay. I am not the only one; there are more W&L Law graduates pursuing the legal academic job market and being very successful.
What sort of legal issues do you handle on a day-to-day basis?
Right now, I am teaching a 1L elective entitled Regulating Police, a course I designed to prepare 1L students for the Crim Pro classes of 2L year, while also acknowledging the limitations of Crim Pro—it requires a case to litigate remedies. Many individuals who are stopped, questioned, searched, or even abused by police may never see a courtroom. In the lecture we address how the police regulate themselves, and how most of our Crim Pro rules of today were simply regulations that originally began as a policing practice and subsequently received judicial approval. My students are learning how to write police regulations, anticipate defects in existing regulations, and utilize these rules in diverging issues. I am hoping to introduce students to even more opportunities to utilize their JD.
On the research end, I am currently working on a project to reveal the upstream barriers to police accountability. Though conversations on the union and arbitration have traditionally been to blame for gaps in accountability, my project will bring another twist to that discussion—the common labor decision to simply not discipline their employees altogether.
What do you like about your current job?
I love meeting with other scholars across different disciplines. For my policing scholarship, I usually pair it with another school of thought. For example, in my prior publications I melded together police with criminal law, policing with criminal procedure, and now I am most interested in meshing policing with workplace law.
What are some practices you have in your daily life as an attorney to maintain wellness?
I already mentioned my video gaming, but in addition to that I would say my family and traveling. I like to plan out my vacations months in advance and show my daughter different parts of the world. I also took up boxing when I was a public defender and have kept up with those classes.
Which W&L classes and/or experiences do you think were most helpful in preparing you for this job?
My favorite classes were all the procedure classes; Crim Pro, Civ Pro, etc. I think these classes collectively helped shape my intellectual identity as a policing proceduralist. The procedure classes helped me situate the law and, most importantly, helped me identify areas where the law is either ineffective or not properly regulated.
What advice do you have for prospective law students?
Try to be open-minded about your career. The law student version of me never envisioned a world beyond that of a public defender, and I think that helped in my career as a PD until that mindset was hindering other desires. I don’t think in that role I had the capacity to think of large system problems. I now have the capacity to engage in that exercise. The problems you are trying to solve as an entry level lawyer may be different from the problems you want to solve five years out of school. Be flexible and willing to pivot to find that joy
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Outside of Work
Hobby
I love video games. There wasn’t a day that went by in law school where I didn’t pick up my system to unplug for a bit. Even now, my work bag typically has my switch or steam deck to keep me company.
Book Recommendation
There are two books that have been inspirational to me. The first is “The Girl from Kathmandu: Twelve Dead Men and a Woman’s Quest for Justice.” It tells a real-life story of Nepalese men working as defense contractors during the Iraq War and the U.S. government denying their family benefits when those men died. The book covers the human rights litigation that followed. The second is “Race Against Time: A Reporter Reopens the Unresolved Murder Cases of the Civil Rights Era,” which reveals government corruption and attempts to shield bad government actors for wrongdoing. These books collectively motivated me to pivot from defense work to government accountability.
Favorite Travel Location
A small bookstore or sneaker convention are ideal local locations. Internationally it would have to be South Africa.
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