Melissa N. Henke is the Robert G. Lawson & William H. Fortune Professor of Law and the law school’s Director of Legal Research and Writing. Henke teaches legal writing. She is a member of the Legal Writing Institute and the Association of Legal Writing Directors. She is also a board member of AppalReD Legal Aid.

Prior to joining UK Law, she was an Associate Professor of Legal Research and Writing at the Georgetown University Law Center. Before she began teaching full-time, Henke practiced law with the Washington, D.C. firm Hogan & Hartson (now Hogan Lovells), where she represented clients in a wide range of commercial litigation matters, including breach of contract and business torts, and defended against nationwide RICO and state class actions involving the healthcare field. In 2007 and 2008, she served as the senior associate in the law firm’s premierepro bono practice group, litigating high-impact and individual pro bono matters involving civil rights, employment discrimination, wrongful convictions, and immigration. Before joining Hogan & Hartson in 2002, she clerked for Judge Gary Allen Feess of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. She also served as an adjunct professor of legal research and writing at the George Washington University Law School in the 2004 and 2006 academic years. 

Henke earned her J.D. with highest honors from the George Washington University Law School in 2001, where she was the Senior Notes Editor for the George Washington Law Review. She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Kentucky in 1998.