Dominique Erney Headshot
Counsel and Fellow, Justice System Reform
she/her/hers

Dominique joined SCSJ in 2024 as Counsel and a Marshall-Motley Scholars Program fellow with the Justice System Reform team.

Dominique was born and raised in Gainesville, Florida. In 2019, she graduated cum laude from Harvard College where she earned a bachelor’s degree in Social Studies and African American Studies, and wrote her senior thesis on the role of the plea bargaining process in the continued subjugation of Black Americans in the criminal legal system. 

She then spent two years doing democracy reform work at the Brennan Center for Justice before starting law school at Yale. While in law school, Dominique focused on clinical work (e.g., the Reentry Clinic) and internships (at Mississippi Center for Justice and Southern Center for Human Rights) that would prepare her for a career in civil rights law, working with people who are impacted by the legal system. Having graduated from Yale Law in the spring of 2024, she comes to SCSJ as a fellow with the Legal Defense Fund’s Marshall-Motley Scholars Program, a scholarship that supports lawyers who are dedicated to civil rights work in the South.

Dominique is motivated by helping people meet their immediate needs, while also working to build a world that allows individuals and communities to flourish, free from systemic oppression.