Alexander Chen

Alexander Chen
Lecturer on Law
2020-2021
LGBTQ+ Advocacy Clinic,WilmerHale Legal
Services CenterLegal Services Center 1
22 Boylston St
617-998-1054
Assistant: Andrew Matthiessen / 617-998-1476
Biography
Alexander Chen is the Founding Director of the Harvard Law School LGBTQ+ Advocacy Clinic. Alexander’s work focuses on expanding the rights of LGBTQ+ people through impact litigation, policy advocacy, and direct representation at both the national and local levels. He also teaches Gender Identity, Sexual Orientation, and the Law at the Law School.
Previously, Alexander served as an Equal Justice Works Fellow at the National Center for Lesbian Rights, one of the nation’s leading LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations. At NCLR, Alexander engaged in LGBTQ+ impact litigation and policy advocacy in education, employment, health care, housing, prisons, and juvenile justice and child welfare settings. Alexander was a member of the litigation team in the transgender military cases Doe v. Trump and Stockman v. Trump, as well as the landmark Ninth Circuit transgender prisoner surgery access case Edmo v. Corizon. He also co-drafted AB 2119, a bill that made California the first state to guarantee access to transition-related health care for trans youth in foster care.
Alexander has received numerous awards for his work, including being named one of Forbes’ 30 Under 30 in Law and Policy, and one of the 40 Best LGBTQ+ Lawyers Under 40 by the National LGBT Bar Association. He is also a co-founder of the National Trans Bar Association and a co-author of the Trans Youth Handbook.
Alexander received his B.A. from Oxford University, his M.A. from Columbia University, and his J.D. from Harvard Law School, where he was the first openly transgender editor of the Harvard Law Review and worked on trans issues at the Department of Justice, the ACLU LGBT & HIV Project, and the National Center for Transgender Equality. He clerked on the Ninth Circuit for the Hon. M. Margaret McKeown, and in the Southern District of California for the Hon. Gonzalo P. Curiel.
Areas of Interest
- Civil Rights and Civil Liberties
- Constitutional Law
- Gender and the Law
Education History
- J.D. Harvard Law School, 2015
- M.A. English and Comparative Literature Columbia University, 2011
- B.A. English Language and Literature University of Oxford, 2009
Current Courses
- Gender Identity, Sexual Orientation, and the Law, Fall 2020
- LGBTQ+ Advocacy Clinic, Fall 2020
- LGBTQ+ Advocacy Clinic, Spring 2021

LGBTQ+ Advocacy Clinic,WilmerHale Legal
Services CenterLegal Services Center 1
22 Boylston St
617-998-1054
Assistant: Andrew Matthiessen / 617-998-1476