Staff Attorney
Juvenile Justice, Education of Foster Youth

Primary office: Oakland, CA
Email: mdunn(at)youthlaw.org  
Phone: (510) 835-8098
Fax: (510) 835-8099

Molly Dunn joined NCYL in August 2007 after three years as the inaugural Youth Advocacy Fellow at Stanford Law School’s Youth and Education Law Project.  In that capacity, Molly served as a clinical instructor, teaching lawyering skills and supervising law students on individual special education and school discipline cases.  Through the clinic Molly also served as cocounsel on several educational impact cases, including Smith v. Berkeley Unified School District, a class action lawsuit to remedy a school district’s violation of students’ due process and equal protection rights in school discipline cases, and J.C. v. California School for the Deaf, a challenge to the California School for the Deaf’s policy of excluding multi-disabled deaf children on the basis of their additional disabilities.   Molly began her legal career as an Equal Justice Works Fellow with Legal Services for Children (LSC), working in partnership with the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office to provide educational advocacy to at-risk youth. After her fellowship, Molly became an LSC staff attorney representing youth in guardianship, dependency, school discipline, immigration, and emancipation cases. Molly earned a B.A., Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from Macalester College in 1994, and her J.D. from Stanford Law School in 2001.