Lawyers and activists working on issues at the intersection of race and the law are frequently both deeply influenced by and making meaningful contributions to the public discourse. Due to their central role shaping this conversation, a new series organized by Fordham Law’s Center on Race, Law and Justice argues that lawyers working in this area must be proficient public intellectuals in addition to their roles as litigators, lobbyists, and strategists.
The Center’s semester-long The Race Law and Public Intellectual Speaker Series is making the case that accessible writing is critical to making an impact on the public debates on racial justice issues. Free and open to the public, the six virtual sessions are meant to provide a space for discussing the skills needed to write about race, as well as how best to contribute knowledge that can aid in the creation, implementation, and enforcement of effective legal interventions and policies. The series begins Sept. 27 with a conversation with Njeri Mathis Rutledge, professor of law at South Texas College of Law Houston, who is also a columnist with USA Today, and will continue throughout the semester.
“It’s important to have this conversation about our role as lawyers in shaping and contributing to the public debate,” said Tanya K. Hernández, Archibald R. Murray Professor of Law, who will moderate the series. “Because lawyers so desperately need to be educated and informed about these very important social policy issues, what is the skill set necessary for being able to talk beyond the courtroom and to the public at large?”
The idea for the series came to Hernández after developing a course for law students on the topic. “When I taught this class for the first time last year with my Fordham Law students, there was nothing written on it, no nicely packaged, ‘how-to guide’ out there,” said Hernández. “After I taught the class, the students reflected back to me just how valuable they thought the course was, how much they learned from the speakers, and how they really wished that this could be something that would be much more broadly disseminated.”
The series will be held on select Tuesdays throughout the fall from 7–8 p.m ET. Guest speakers scheduled to appear include:
Oct. 11: Justin Hansford, professor at Howard University School of Law and director of Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center- Oct. 25: Professor Vinay Harpalani, The University of New Mexico
- Nov. 1: Khaled Beydoun, associate professor at Wayne State University School of Law and associate director of Civil Rights and Social Justice, Damon J. Keith Center for Civil Rights
- Nov. 8: Bernadette Atuahene, James E. Jones, Jr. Chair Professor of Law at University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Law
- Nov. 15: David Troutt, Distinguished Professor of Law and Justice John J. Francis Scholar at Rutgers School of Law
- The complete schedule can be found here.
Topics to be discussed throughout the series include the role of Black prosecutors in building trust in both law enforcement and the criminal justice system, the meaning of “defunding the police,” the dynamics between law enforcement and Black social justice protesters, affirmative action, racial issues in the fight against terrorism, the use of municipal regulations and taxation to harm communities of color, disinvestment in urban communities of color, and more.
If you would like to register for all six sessions, please fill out the registration forms in both links*.
*Note: You only need to register once per link. When you register through either link, you will automatically have access to all three days on that link.
CLE credit for these programs are pending in accordance with the requirements of the New York State CLE Board for a maximum of 1.0 nontransitional diversity, inclusion and elimination of bias credit each.
