Laura Coates

Coates was born on July 11, 1979, in Hartford, Connecticut, but was raised in Worcester, Massachusetts until the fourth grade, when her family moved to Minnesota. She is the youngest of three sisters. In 2005, she received a J.D. from the University of Minnesota Law School. == Legal career ==

Coates began her legal career in Minnesota as an associate attorney at the firm of Faegre & Benson. She left Faegre to become an associate at the New York law firm of Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman. She moved from private practice to the United States Department of Justice as a federal prosecutor. She was a trial attorney in the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice during the Bush and Obama administrations, specializing in the enforcement of voting rights throughout the country. She was also an assistant United States attorney for the District of Columbia, prosecuting violent felony offenses such as drug trafficking, armed offenses, domestic violence, child abuse, and sexual assault. She is not currently a practicing attorney and is on inactive status with the Office of Lawyer Registration at the Minnesota Supreme Court. == Television and radio ==

In May 2016, she joined CNN as senior legal analyst. In addition to appearances across CNN programs as an analyst, Coates would also be involved with various specials and town hall events broadcast by the network. In September 2022, ahead of the 2022 midterms, CNN announced that Coates would be an interim primetime host under the CNN Tonight branding, co-anchoring the 10 p.m.–midnight block with Alisyn Camerota. In January 2023, Coates moved exclusively to the 11 p.m. hour of CNN Tonight. Coates was quietly dropped from the program in March 2023. On May 5, 2023, CNN announced that Coates had been promoted to chief legal analyst. On April 19, 2024, she was covering the prosecution of Donald Trump in New York for CNN when she was suddenly interrupted and had to report live on the self-immolation of Maxwell Azzarello. She proceeded to rapidly narrate the immolation live for two minutes as it happened. However, both she and CNN faced criticism for initially misreporting an "active shooter" and for the split-second decision to show the graphic footage of the self-immolation live. == Publications ==

Coates has written features and provided research for major publications such as The Washington Post and the Boston Herald. Her first book, published in January 2016, was a legal guide entitled You Have the Right: A Constitutional Guide to Policing the Police. Coates' second book, ''Just Pursuit: A Black Prosecutor's Fight for Fairness'', was released in January 2022, detailing her experience as a Black female federal prosecutor. == Teaching ==

Coates is an adjunct law professor at George Washington University School of Law and routinely speaks across the country on civil rights, social justice, economic empowerment, and other topics. == Personal life ==

Coates married Dale Gordon in 2010. Coates is a longtime fan of hip-hop. She is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. == References ==