Assistant Professor of Law
Jared Mollenkof graduated from Georgetown University Law Center in 2012. He was an executive board member of the Black Law Student Association (BLSA), wrote and edited for Georgetown’s student newspaper Law Weekly, and was actively involved in the Juvenile Justice Clinic. He was a Dean’s Scholar in 2011. He was trained through Gideon’s Promise in client-centered representation and from 2012 to 2019 served as a public defender in the Nashville Defender’s Office. Professor Mollenkof served on Nashville’s misdemeanor, felony and complex litigation teams, where he handled numerous felony cases in trial and on appeal, litigated for bail reform, and collaborated extensively on community initiatives. In 2019, he was a mentor in residence at Yale Law School, where he counseled students interested in public defense careers. He has been a public defender in the Hennepin County Public Defender’s Office since 2019, where he has first-chaired seven homicide cases and handled eight felony trials. He has served in leadership roles at the ACLU of TN and NAACP Nashville, been a policy lead with a number of political campaigns and on ballot initiatives and been an active member with Black Lives Matter Nashville and Law 4 Black Lives, all while fighting for queer liberation with Southerners On New Ground (SONG). He is a current board member with the No Exceptions Prison Collective and the Minnesota Freedom Fund.
Before joining Mitchell Hamline’s faculty, he taught Constitutional Law and Criminal Procedure to
undergraduates at Hamline University.
Education
J.D., Georgetown University Law Center
B.A., History, Covenant College, Lookout Mountain, GA
Experience
Hennepin County Public Defender’s Office
Assistant Public Defender, 2019–
Nashville Defender’s Office
Assistant Public Defender, 2012–19
Hamline University
Adjunct Professor 2021–
Minnesota Freedom Fund
Member of the board of directors, 2020–
Yale Law School
Mentor in Residence, 2019
Community activism
American Civil Liberties Union (Tennessee Affiliate), Nashville
Executive Board Member, 2017–19
Served on the TN ACLU state-wide board advising the Executive Director and Staff on organizational issues and helping insure the best utilization of the over one-million-dollar annual budget. Held “Know Your Rights” seminars at local HBCUs.
No Exceptions Prison Collective, Nashville, TN
Executive Board Member, 2016–
Aiding this small prisoner right’s initiative that does direct assistance with insiders and their families with its lobbying work and fundraising efforts.
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Tennessee
General member, 2013–19; Committee Chairperson, 2017–18
Served with several other attorneys handling the requests for legal advice that come into the Davidson County NAACP office. Worked as a chairperson on an outreach committee to Black young professionals in middle Tennessee.
Black Lives Matter Nashville
Core leadership, 2018–19; general membership, 2015–18
In the months after the Ferguson, Missouri Grand Jury chose not to indict Darren Wilson for the murder of Michael Brown a Black Lives Matter chapter arose in Nashville. I joined it in the summer of 2015 and have been very active in it ever since, organizing direct actions as well as working on legislative initiatives.
Southerners on New Ground, Nashville
Campaign lead, 2017–19
S.O.N.G. is a queer liberation collective that works to address societal issues that affect marginalized communities, particularly the poor and people of color. S.O.N.G. was instrumental in Nashville’s successful campaign for a Community Oversight Board in the fall of 2018 and through S.O.N.G. I ran an extensive volunteer Court Watching Program in the Davidson County Night Court.
Awards and recognition
Georgetown University Law Center: dean’s scholar; CALI Award, Homelessness Seminar Best Final Paper; CALI Award, Capital Punishment Best Final Paper
Covenant College: dean’s list; McClellan Diversity Scholar; Schmidt Memorial Scholar; Sigma Tau Delta, English Honor Society
jared.mollenkof @mitchellhamline.edu