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Laura Coates is an American lawyer, legal commentator, author, and educator. She is best known as a CNN legal analyst. She also hosts The Laura Coates show, which premiered on July 24, 2017.

Early life and education
Coates is a native of St. Paul, Minnesota. In 2002, she earned a A.B. from Princeton University; and, in 2005, she earned her Juris Doctor degree from the University of Minnesota Law School.

Career
Coates started her legal career in private practice as an intellectual property attorney.

United States Department of Justice
Coates served as a Trial Attorney in the Voting Section of the US Department of Justice. In 2010, Coates served as a point-person for redistricting issues in Arkansas, Maine, and Tennessee.

Coates left the Voting Section to become an Assistant United States Attorney in the District of Columbia. There, she prosecuted felony offenses. In 2014, she served on the team that prosecuted cousins Alonzo Ferrell and Floyd Long. The men, known as the Christmas day bandits, carried out a series of armed robberies across Washington DC on Christmas Eve and Christmas day 2012. Floyd received a 19 ½ years prison sentence; Ferrell received a 15-year prison sentence.

Legal Commentator
Coates speaks, lectures and writes about the Constitution, Criminal Law, Civil Rights and Government ethics. She first garnered national attention for her analysis of the prosecution of six police officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray.

Coates began her on-air commentary career with MSNBC. She currently serves as an on-air legal analyst for CNN. In addition to on-air commentary, she provides online analysis for CNN.com. In 2017, she launched The Laura Coates show on SiriusXM’s Urban View station. The daily call-in show mixes current events, politics, pop culture, and the law.

In 2016, she wrote the best selling book: You Have The Right: A Constitutional Guide to Policing the Police. . Her legal analysis and commentary have appeared in the Washington Post, the Baltimore Sun, and USA Today.

Teaching
Coates teaches at the George Washington University Law School, where she is a Professorial Lecturer in Law.

Personal Life
She now resides in Washington, D.C. with her husband and two children.