Claudia Williams Hyman is the Senior Staff Attorney for the ACLU of Mississippi. Claudia is a holistic child and family advocate with extensive experience in labor law, civil rights law, family law, and community-centered advocacy. Claudia’s interdisciplinary approach brings together knowledge and strategies from the fields of law, sociology, public policy, and community organizing to protect and expand the rights of historically marginalized communities.
Claudia is a native of Memphis, Tennessee, and obtained a bachelor’s degree in Sociology and Africana Studies from Bowdoin College, a master’s degree in Sociology from the University of Memphis, and the Juris Doctor from Howard University School of Law. At Howard, she was the Managing Editor of the Howard Human & Civil Rights Law Review, a Peggy Browning Fund fellow, and a student attorney in the Child Welfare/Family Justice Legal Clinic.
Claudia’s commitment to community advocacy and service began long before she became an attorney. Prior to law school, Claudia supported families of children with intellectual and behavioral challenges and created programs to support positive educational outcomes for Black and Latina college students. As a graduate student at the University of Memphis, she conducted award-winning research on the strategies utilized by queer Black women to navigate the lack of workplace protections for LGBTQ people in the southern United States.
Before joining the ACLU of Mississippi, Claudia counseled national and international labor unions on organizing campaigns, collective bargaining negotiations, and proceedings before the National Labor Relations Board and other administrative agencies. Claudia was a judicial law clerk with the Missouri Court of Appeals, Southern District in Springfield, Missouri and served on the young professionals board of the Child Advocacy Center.
In addition to being passionate about legal theory and practice, Claudia also enjoys writing poetry, listening to jazz, and practicing yoga.
