Crisanne Hazen

Crisanne Hazen is the Associate Director of the Youth Advocacy & Policy Lab (Y-Lab), Director of the Child Advocacy Clinic, and a Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School. She teaches several courses and clinics. Her Child Advocacy Clinic partners with local and national youth law organizations to develop law students’ lawyering skills through real-world legal practice. She also co-teaches a Movement Lawyering Clinic focused on increasing the power of young people in education decision-making; a youth advocacy and policy seminar; a course on creating system change in child-facing systems; and a writing group centered on children and the law. She is Co-Director of the Youth Advocacy Fellows Program, a pathway for law students to build their expertise and leadership skills in the field.

Prior to joining Harvard Law School in 2016, she worked for ten years in San Jose, California, as a supervising attorney at Legal Advocates for Children and Youth (LACY), a program of the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley. She started her legal career as an Equal Justice Works Fellow at LACY, where she created a know-your-rights curriculum for pregnant and parenting teens. She went on to provide direct representation to children and youth in a variety of civil proceedings, including family law, domestic violence, guardianships, child welfare, housing, immigration, benefits, special education, and school discipline. She worked on policy issues affecting children in the juvenile justice system, victims of domestic violence and other abuse, and special education students. She also managed several population-based projects, including a Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC) project, transition-age foster youth project, and a medical-legal partnership clinic. Before attending law school, Crisanne worked in higher education in Long Beach, California; at a community-based church in Denver, Colorado; and as a community organizer in Helena, Montana.

Crisanne received her J.D. from the University of California-Davis School of Law and her B.A. from Harvard University. She is licensed to practice law in California and Massachusetts.