When residents and organizers gathered to advocate for housing rights, Alex Fennell (J.D. ’25) was ready to jump in to strategize, coordinate and amplify the demands of the community. Prior to law school, that work took her to the Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development in New York City, but the legal language that drove the conversations in those rooms often left her with more questions than answers.
“We would be told our goals weren’t possible,” Fennell remembered, “but no one ever explained if it was because of the law, the constitution or politics. I wanted to find those answers for myself.”
Fennell’s search for clarity and broader capabilities led her to apply to one institution: Georgia State University College of Law.
“I knew I wanted to stay in Georgia,” Fennell explained. “Colleagues told me unless I was aiming for academia, the benefits of private schools didn’t outweigh the cost. Georgia State Law offered solid clinical opportunities, affordable tuition and the chance to stay rooted in the city.”
What she found once enrolled was better than she expected. “I was 100 percent right in my choice,” she said. “Our student body is diverse. People are pursuing law as a second career, raising families and have widely varied interests. There's no ‘typical’ Georgia State Law student, and that means I’ve learned just as much from my classmates as I have from my professors.”
That collaborative culture shaped Fennell’s experience from day one. Instead of a competitive atmosphere, she found a community that lifts one another up with cooperation and celebration. “We work together and support each other in so many ways,” she said. “I wouldn’t have made it through the last three years without the support of my community.”
Fennell’s deep roots in policy followed her from the classroom and out into the field, and she has broadened her understanding of challenging injustice through internships with Georgia Legal Services Program in Atlanta and the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia.
She was hired in her second year as the Chief Policy Advisor for Atlanta City Councilmember Liliana Bakhtiari where she is able to advocate for equity for historically marginalized and underserved groups. And in her final year, Fennell had the opportunity to draft and pass legislation.
Four pieces of legislation Fennell authored were adopted by the Atlanta City Council. “I never imagined I would be able to actually advance legislation while still in school,” she said. “I learned how to navigate state limitations on municipalities, negotiate the politics and grow from every mistake along the way.”
“Being able to identify needs and enact legislation to meet them is precisely what I hoped to do before law school, and Georgia State Law has given me an incredible set of tools to do it.”
For Fennell, local government is where real impact lives. “When our rights are under attack at the federal level, local governments become the last bastion of protection,” she said. “Being able to identify needs and enact legislation to meet them is precisely what I hoped to do before law school, and Georgia State Law has given me an incredible set of tools to do it.”
Fennell credits Professor Derrick Pope as one of the professors who helped her sharpen those tools. Pope’s renowned Legislative Drafting Seminar gave Fennell a glimpse of what policy work looked like through a legal lens. “Professor Pope is unbelievably thoughtful and kind,” she said, “and he teaches in a creative, interactive and exciting way unlike any other class I’ve taken.”
To Professor Pope, Fennell is known for her thoughtful, probing engagement in class and an inspiring aptitude for the material.
“Alex was always prepared and interminably inquisitive which is a delight for any professor,” he said. “She welcomed being pushed and challenged in her thinking, especially when it revealed a depth of application she had not first considered. In my Legislative Drafting Seminar, Alex exhibited both a natural capacity for this most intellectually challenging form of legal writing and the interest in improving with every assignment.”
Outside of the classroom, Fennell also found her stride as a moot court coach, leading two teams during her third year, one to the Jerome Prince Evidence Competition and one to the BLSA Thurgood Marshall Moot Court Competition, where they were recognized for third place in regionals and as national quarterfinalists in 2025. She speaks about her fellow competitors with a mix of pride and awe. “Their commitment and hard work stunned me,” she said. “Watching their confidence grow alongside their knowledge of the law was the most rewarding part of my law school experience. I’m so proud to see women of color taking their place at the forefront of legal advocacy.”
Though she loved competing, it was the partnership and camaraderie that made it meaningful. She recalled the months of writing, editing and practicing for the 2024 Jerome Prince Memorial Evidence Competition with her teammate, Aditya Krishnaswamy (J.D. ’25). “We bonded over the challenges of brief writing and the pressure of competing. His friendship and support and the care we have for each other surfaced again and again.” They went on to place as semifinalists.
Not content with only one or two avenues of involvement, Fennell engaged in a range of other public-interest work. She participated in the Capital Defender’s Clinic and the National Lawyers Guild at GSU and she signed up for Georgia State’s Alternative Spring Break (ASB) program, where she worked on probate and inherited property issues.
Building on her already robust background in housing justice as a mechanism of racial justice, ASB deepened her understanding of the problem and its nuances. “Now I hope to launch initiatives in the city to help legacy homeowners keep their homes,” she said. “I wouldn’t have even known about this issue without ASB.”
Fennell now has the tools and the experience to keep building a better Atlanta, one policy at a time, and she has the full confidence of her former professor.
“There are two key ingredients to make a significant impact in public policy, and Alex has them both,” said Professor Pope. “You must have a passion for the legislative setting to be an instrument for the common good and social betterment, and that passion has to be coupled with a practical sense of what can and cannot be accomplished through legislative initiatives. I fully expect that Alex Fennell at some point in her professional career will be principally responsible for groundbreaking pieces of legislation, and I will take great pride in having witnessed it from the beginning.”
After graduation, she will continue in her current role as Chief Policy Advisor for Councilmember Bakhtiari. Fennell plans to leverage her connections in the city by paying it forward to future generations of students.