Full Biography

Debbie Hines is a lawyer and former prosecutor who has become one of the most influential and prominent African American bloggers in the country today. She is a legal and political commentator based in Washington, DC who founded Legal Speaks.com LegalSpeaks.com, a progressive blog, on gender and race in law and politics. She is also a contributing writer for the Huffington Post, Politic 365 and the Women’s Media Center.  She is a legal commentator on the Michael Eric Dyson show, appears on XM Satellite radio, Pacifica radio and on CBS, NBC and ABC Washington, DC TV affiliates.   Her works have also appeared in the Wall Street Journal, CNN, Washington Post, NPR, Black Enterprise and USA Today.

Addressing issues on gender and race, Hines speaks on hot political and legal topics and local and national headline legal trials. She speaks from a perspective that is rarely heard in mainstream media. She is an experienced legal and politicalcommentator appearing on television and radio on a range of legal, political and social justice issues. She has commented on issues related to gender, race, criminal law, criminal justice, death penalty, gun rights, murder, and election laws. She is recognized as a women’s media expert.  Her article, Why the New Voter ID Laws Will Disenfranchise Women was one of the most widely read articles on the Women’s Media Center.

During the 2010 midterm election, she was invited by the Democratic National Committee to advise on new media messaging, particularly on African American issues. She has covered White House press conferences. 

As a former felony prosecutor, she tried murders, rapes, burglaries, narcotics and economic crimes, with a high conviction rate.  As a trial lawyer in private practice, Debbie Hines has fought for the rights of victims injured by defective products, in courts across the country. She authored “What Does It Mean When Your Client is a Woman?”  She holds a Juris Doctorate from George Washington University Law School and a BA in American history from the University of Pennsylvania.