Jessica Gadea Hawkins
Jessica Gadea is a Latinx woman and first generation law school graduate, and she specializes in inclusive and progressive social justice. Jessica draws on personal and professional experiences to bring a trauma-informed and healing lens to her work as a legal clinic lawyer.
Before joining the Lincoln Alexander School of Law as a staff lawyer with the Legal Clinic Programs team, she received an LL.M. from Columbia Law School where she was a James Kent Scholar, Public Interest Honoree, and recipient of the Anti-Racism Grant and Davis Polk Leadership Grant. While at Columbia, Jessica founded the Restorative Justice Collective to provide students with opportunities to deviate from normative legal practice and engage in developing a reflective and interdisciplinary practice.
She has practiced as a staff lawyer with community legal clinics in Toronto and in the GTA, has worked as a counselor with incarcerated and criminalized individuals, and regularly facilitates classes on building equitable client relationships. Jessica has also received a J.D. with a social justice focus from the University of Ottawa, and a B.A. (English) from the University of Calgary.
“The legal clinic is often a space of deep transformation for students as they learn to navigate the law as a site of violence and oppression for so many communities. I feel both excited and humbled to be able to grow alongside Lincoln Alexander Law students as they learn what it means to navigate these systems with care and humility!”
