Meigan Thompson

Assistant Public Defender

Meigan is an assistant public defender in the Adult Trial Division of the Law Office of the Shelby County Public Defender. In this role, she is a fierce advocate for the rights of her clients and diverting as many of her clients from the criminal justice system as possible. Core to her interest in the practice of law is the human experience of the individuals she represents and how their lives are impacted by the carceral systems to which they are subjected. In 2020, Meigan created The Humanity Project, a storytelling initiative that recorded and described the experiences of those who were incarcerated during the coronavirus pandemic. It led to an October 2020 profile in The Washington Post that used a ‘day in the life’ feature to follow Meigan as she went about one hour of her day.

Prior to the start of her legal career in 2017, Meigan pursued interests in social justice advocacy. In Mississippi, she organized communities around youth incarceration and school-to-prison pipeline issues at the Southern Poverty Law Center and developed advocacy campaigns around health justice issues with the Mississippi Center for Justice. In Washington DC, Meigan honed her research and writing skills with the international nonprofit, TransAfrica Forum, and the nonprofit organization, The Pew Charitable Trusts.

Meigan is a Gideon’s Promise LSPP Fellow (class of 2017) and a member of the Ben F. Jones Bar Association. She earned her J.D. from the University of California Irvine Law School, a M.S. from Delta State University in Community Development and a B.A. from Spelman College in Spanish.