Lisa Hoppenjans directs the School of Law’s First Amendment Clinic, which focuses on defending freedom of speech, press and assembly.
She was previously a partner at the law firm of Dowd Bennett LLP, where her practice focused on complex civil litigation, appellate litigation and internal investigations. While at Dowd Bennett, she also defended journalists for two national publications who were arrested while covering protests in Ferguson, Missouri.
Prior to her legal career, Hoppenjans spent four years as a newspaper reporter for The News & Observer of Raleigh, North Carolina, and the Winston-Salem Journal. After law school, Lisa clerked for the Hon. Susan H. Black of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. She earned a J.D. summa cum laude and Order of the Coif from the Duke University School of Law and a Master of Arts in Mass Communication from the University of North Carolina.
