Court TV anchor and Mercer University alumna Julia Jenaé combined her love of the courtroom and the newsroom to pursue a career as a legal journalist in hopes of shedding light on stories that shape the justice system.
Jenaé graduated from Mercer in 2006 and went on to attend Florida Coastal School of Law. After graduating from law school in 2010, she worked as an attorney for a few years before turning to investigative reporting in 2014.
In 2019, she joined Court TV as a crime and justice reporter, eventually moving into the role of anchor in 2024.
During her career as a legal correspondent, Jenaé has covered high-profile stories about disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, singer and convicted sex offender R. Kelly, and Ahmaud Arbery, a Black man killed in a racially motivated hate crime.
She has won numerous awards for her investigations, including three Emmys. She received her first Emmy while at ABC affiliate KLTV in Texas for her reporting on a county judge that prompted a state investigation.
Jenaé said she became interested in journalism and law as a child.
“I grew up watching Matlock and watching Law and Order shows, and my dad really thought a lawyer is a good career path,” she said.
She also loved to write and share people’s stories.
“Even back in the days of camcorders and huge cameras, I would use VHS tapes and record things that happened, and then I would edit it together myself,” she said.
In high school, she realized she could use her passions for writing and editing videos to pursue a career into journalism. As she looked forward to college, she felt drawn to Mercer.
“I just always knew that this was going to be a perfect fit, and it truly was,” she said. “Not just what I learned in terms of classes and skills but the friendships that you form.”
Jenaé said Mercer helped her feel confident in her abilities as a journalist and taught her how to develop them further.
“Mercer was this just very special place where you could do what you needed to do to learn the business,” she said. “The way that (journalism professor) Dr. Jay Black taught his classes, he made sure that we had real world experience, and we understood what we needed to actually go and do and not just get a book understanding of journalism.”
While at Mercer, she served as editor for The Mercer Cluster student newspaper and program manager and anchor of the campus TV channel Mercer 99. Outside academics, Jenaé said Mercer was crucial in laying the foundation for her career.
“I’ve learned how important it is to remember to look at the human side of these cases first, even with the headlines,” she said. “If you can lead with the human element of your stories, it’s just going to make so much of a difference.”
At Mercer, she learned the true purpose of a journalist. It is important for journalists to challenge ideas, ask deep questions and follow up when necessary, Jenaé said.
“I learned not to chase sensationalism,” she said.
Jenaé has covered nationally intense cases, such as the Parkland school shooting and the police killing of George Floyd. The Parkland case was heart wrenching for her as a reporter in the courtroom, even though she was not personally connected to the people involved, she said.
“To feel that much grief in a room certainly changed how I view some of these cases,” she said. “It reminds you just how much love, grief, pain and anger are there when murder is involved and how they can come to a head.”
Jenaé said she was able to cover the George Floyd case from start to finish during a hard time in the country.
“It was really important to be sure that everyone was getting accurate information and not information that was sensationalized so that they were understanding what was happening,” she said.
Jenaé said one of the most memorable stories she has covered as a legal journalist was about a Texas veteran who died of Lou Gehrig’s disease after being denied his Department of Veterans Affairs benefits.
“That is a story that indicates the power of the pen,” she said. “(Journalists) may not always get a great rap the way the public views us, especially in more recent years, but there is power in what we do.”
This case was a part of the early investigative reporting she did as she transitioned from lawyer to journalist.
“Once the story hit, there were organizations that got involved, lawmakers that got involved,” she said. “When we went back to do the follow up, while we were there, the VA called (the veteran’s wife) and gave her all of the benefits and the back pay of benefits that she was owed.”
Jenaé said the most rewarding part about working as a legal journalist is seeing the changes in the legal system their impact.
“There’s always something new, always something that is changing, and when you cover it the way that we do, we can see how it’s all connected and how it impacts all of us at the end of the day,” she said.
