Julia Payne Koon

Julia Payne Koon serves as legal counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom’s Center for Life. In this role, she defends the sanctity of life by litigating both beginning and end of life issues.

Before joining ADF, Koon worked at the Office of the Indiana Attorney General as a deputy attorney general for five years. While at the AG’s office, she managed all of Indiana’s pro-life litigation and also worked on cases concerning immigration, religious liberty, federalism, the Commerce Clause, criminal procedure, federal habeas corpus procedures, civil asset forfeiture, local and special laws, and the common law powers of the attorney general. She has argued cases before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit, the Southern District of Indiana, and Indiana state courts.

Koon graduated cum laude from Indiana University Maurer School of Law in 2017, where she served as an editor on the Indiana Law Journal and won best brief in the Sherman Minton Moot Court Competition. During law school, Koon interned as a clerk for Indiana Solicitor General Tom Fisher and as a Blackstone Fellow with ADF’s Center for Academic Freedom in Atlanta. She also served as president of the Christian Legal Society and as an officer for the Advocates for Life and the Federalist Society.

Before law school, Koon graduated summa cum laude from Western Kentucky University with a B.A. in History and a B.A. in Spanish. As an undergraduate, Koon studied abroad in both Spain and China. On campus, she served on the Student Government Association judicial counsel, led the music ministry for the Catholic Campus Center, and was an active member of Omega Phi Alpha service sorority. Koon was also a founding member of the Hilltoppers for Life, which helped spur her interest in First Amendment and pro-life issues. She is a member of the bars of the Indiana Supreme Court, the northern and southern districts of Indiana, and the 7th Circuit.