About
Ms. Hagood received her Bachelor’s degree with honors from Taylor University, where she was a National Merit Scholar. She earned a Master’s degree in English at the University of Alabama and was awarded a Hudson Strode Fellowship. Ms. Hagood graduated with honors from Cumberland School of Law where she served on Law Review. While in law school, Ms. Hagood was part of a team which eventually won reversal of a death sentence for an Alabama inmate.
After completing a clerkship for the Honorable Joel F. Dubina of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, Ms. Hagood joined Hare Wynn Newell & Newton, a boutique plaintiff’s firm in Birmingham, Alabama, as the first female associate in the firm’s hundred-year history. At Hare Wynn, she practiced in the areas of product liability, medical malpractice, and business litigation, and was a core member of the team in a derivative action on behalf of HealthSouth Corporation against its former CEO, Richard Scrushy, arising from the multi-billion dollar fraud at HealthSouth.
Ms. Hagood subsequently practiced at Haskell Slaughter Young & Rediker, where she worked on several high-profile white collar cases including serving as counsel of record for civil rights icon Chris McNair in his petition for certiorari before the Supreme Court of the United States. She also won habeas review for a Florida prisoner in his § 2254 habeas petition before the Eleventh Circuit.
Ms. Hagood lived in San Diego, California for nine years. While there, Ms. Hagood was appointed to the Criminal Justice Act Appellate Panel for the Southern District of California and the Appellate Defenders of San Diego Panel and focused on appellate law and criminal defense as a solo practitioner. In that capacity, she won remand from the Ninth Circuit in an immigration appeal, served as counsel of record on an amicus brief before the Supreme Court of the United States, and represented white collar and other criminal defendants. Immediately prior to her panel appointments, Ms. Hagood served as a Special Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of California where she successfully argued on behalf of the United States before the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
In 2018, Ms. Hagood and her family returned to her native North Carolina where she continues her appellate practice with a focus on representing indigent criminal defendants. She is appointed to the roster of the North Carolina Appellate Defender’s Office. She is appointed to the CJA Appellate Panel for the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and the roster of the North Carolina Appellate Defender’s Office.
Ms. Hagood is licensed to practice in North Carolina, California, and Alabama.