Nancy K.D. Lemon, the John and Elizabeth Boalt Lecturer at UC Berkeley School of Law, has committed her legal career to improving safety in the family home. She received a BA in Women’s Studies with honors in 1975 from the University of California at Santa Cruz. She graduated from Boalt Hall School of Law (UC Berkeley) in 1980 and has specialized in domestic violence legal issues ever since. She has taught Domestic Violence Law at Boalt since 1988. Her textbook, Domestic Violence Law (3rd edition by West, 2009) is the first published curriculum on this topic and is used in law schools around the US. She also teaches a Domestic Violence Practicum class at Boalt, and with her students has written many amicus briefs. In 2013, she was awarded the John and Elizabeth Boalt Lecturer status to honor her many years of service. She has represented hundreds of battered women obtaining restraining orders and advocated for them with the civil and criminal justice systems. She has interviewed well over 1500 victims of domestic violence starting in 1979. Ms. Lemon has worked with other attorneys as a trial consultant and has worked since 1995 as an expert witness in hundreds of civil, criminal, and asylum cases on domestic violence issues. As of January 2013, she has testified in over 60 cases. In 2012, Ms. Lemon also co-founded the non-profit Family Violence Appellate Project, and currently serves as its Legal Director.
She has written curricula for new judges and court employees, as well as a benchbook for California criminal court judges. She has trained hundreds of judges, police officers, prosecutors, court employees, custody evaluators, mediators, social workers, and domestic violence advocates on domestic violence dynamics and laws. Ms. Lemon has worked on numerous pieces of legislation in the California legislature. For fourteen years she was an Associate Editor of Domestic Violence Report, a bimonthly national publication. She has published many books and articles in this field.