Nancy Polikoff

Nancy Polikoff is an American law professor, LGBT rights activist and author who is a professor emerita at the American University Washington College of Law. Born in 1952, she took a Bachelor of Arts in English at the University of Pennsylvania in 1972 and a J.D. at Georgetown University Law Center in 1975, and in 1976 co-authored one of the first law review articles on the custody rights of lesbian mothers. She taught briefly at Catholic University's law school, was an attorney and founding partner of the Washington feminist law collective Hunter, Polikoff, Bodley and Bottum from 1976 to 1981, and was a staff attorney for the Women's Legal Defense Fund from 1982 to 1987. She joined the Washington College of Law faculty in 1987 and became a full professor in 1993. Her work focuses on LGBTQ rights, family law and gender identity, and her book Beyond (Straight and Gay) Marriage: Valuing All Families under the Law appeared in 2008. She chaired the Association of American Law Schools section on sexual orientation and gender identity issues.