Esther Hong is a comparative scholar of youth and adult carceral systems. Her research primarily examines the juvenile legal system and analyzes how its foundational theories, laws, policies, institutional structures, and emerging trends provide insights to address the pathologies of the carceral state and its carceral systems. She teaches criminal law and advanced criminal procedure.
Prior to joining the ASU Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law faculty, Professor Hong was an Assistant Professor of Law at Wake Forest University School of Law, and an Acting Assistant Professor of Lawyering at NYU School of Law. Before entering academia, she represented indigent youth and adults in their juvenile delinquency and criminal appeals through her appellate practice. She also served as a law clerk to Judge Valerie B. Fairbank for the United States District Court, Central District of California, and worked as a litigation associate at Kirkland & Ellis LLP.
She graduated from Stanford Law School, where she was an editor of the Stanford Law Review and the Stanford Journal of Civil Rights & Civil Liberties.