Laura Coates is CNN’s chief legal analyst and anchor of Laura Coates Live, airing weeknights at 11 pm ET. The show showcases the day’s most interesting stories with smart, provocative, and thoughtful analysis, while leveraging Coates’ significant experience as a prosecutor and relentless pursuit of the facts. At the intersection between law, politics, and pop culture, the high-energy show takes the news viewers have already heard and helps them to truly understand it.

Emmy nominated Coates joined CNN in 2016 and plays a central role in the network’s extensive legal programming, as well as having a prominent role in major news moments, including CNN’s coverage of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the January 6th hearings and the two impeachment hearings of President Donald Trump, hosting a special entitled White House in Crisis: The Impeachment Inquiry. She routinely covers high-profile criminal prosecutions, including the trial of Alex Murdaugh and former police officer Derek Chauvin.

Coates is also the host of the award-winning daily The Laura Coates Show on SiriusXM’s bipartisan P.O.T.U.S. channel, where she interviews world leaders and politicians from both sides of the aisle and engages the audience with a lively discussion on the intersection of politics and the law.

Coates has authored two books: You Have the Right: A Constitutional Guide to Policing the Police and the New York Times bestseller Just Pursuit: A Black Prosecutor’s Fight for Fairness.

A native of Saint Paul, Minnesota, Coates graduated from Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs and the University of Minnesota Law School, where she serves on the Board of Advisors, before beginning her legal career in private practice. She practiced law in Minnesota and New York, handling cases ranging from intellectual property litigation and First Amendment issues to defamation and media law. Called to public service, she transitioned from private practice to the United States Department of Justice, thriving as a federal prosecutor. She served as a trial attorney in the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice during the Bush and Obama administrations, specializing in the enforcement of voting rights throughout the country. She also served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, prosecuting a myriad of violent felony offenses, including drug trafficking, armed offenses, domestic violence, child abuse, and sexual assault.