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J. Hamilton McCoy is clinical professor of law and supervising attorney for the Duke Law Civil Justice Clinic. In that capacity he teaches a seminar course, mentors students in developing and improving basic civil litigation skills, and oversees their handling of cases for indigent clients who are often unable to obtain adequate representation in the traditional civil justice system through the clinic’s partnership with Legal Aid of North Carolina (LANC).

A Durham native, McCoy operated a boutique solo practice in Raleigh for four years before becoming a LANC staff attorney in the agency’s Winston-Salem and Durham offices. He has litigated cases in a variety of practice areas, including criminal defense, personal injury, public housing evictions and voucher terminations, landlord-tenant matters, and foreclosure defense. McCoy has also served as an advocate for victims of domestic violence in Wake, Durham, Granville, Vance, and Forsyth Counties, and has taught at both the North Carolina Central University and Wake Forest University Schools of Law.

McCoy, who joined the Duke Law faculty full-time in 2017, received his B.A. from Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University in 2005 and his J.D. from North Carolina Central University School of Law in 2008. He moonlights as a fiction writer and to date has published two novels, A Family Saga Book 1: Sundiata and Blacks’s Law: The Hell-Maker. He also enjoys watching professional football with his wife and child, and cheering for the Carolina Panthers.