Headshot photo of Emma Mclean-Riggs, wearing glasses, smiling, in front of red/brown brick wall

Emma Mclean-Riggs joined the ACLU of Colorado in September 2023. Emma came to the ACLU of Colorado from the Office of the State Public Defender, where she was a trial lawyer in the Arapahoe Regional Office, defending the liberty of indigent accused Coloradans.

Emma graduated from Reed College, before attending the University of California Berkeley School of Law. After graduation, Emma served as a law clerk for the Honorable Judge Carlos F. Lucero of the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals and then for Justice Monica M. Márquez of the Colorado Supreme Court. She spent two years as a Skadden Fellow, with the Colorado Juvenile Defender Center and the ACLU of Colorado, focused on ending the cruel and unfounded practice of placing children on the sex offender registry.

In her free time, Emma loves fantasy novels, spending time with her wife and other loved ones, and traveling to cold places.