Considering Professionalism and Racism: How the Professional Identity Defines, Impacts, and Marginalizes People of Color
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Prompted by Leah Goodridge’s recent essay in the UCLA Law Review which “examines professionalism as a tool to subjugate people of color in the legal field,” this discussion illuminates how racial hierarchy and inequity operates within the legal professionalism context—not only for attorneys and paralegals but also for those participating in the legal process. Please join the Deborah L. Rhode Center on the Legal Profession, the Stanford Center for Racial Justice, and the John and Terry Levin Center for Public Service and Public Interest Law for a thought-provoking conversation with Leah, Misasha Suzuki Graham, and Professor Ron Tyler, moderated by Professor Richard Ford.
This event is co-sponsored with the Black Law Students Association, Asian and Pacific Islander Law Students Association, Native American Law Students Association, Black Business Student Association, and Stanford American Indigenous Medical Students.
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Leah Goodridge is a nationally renowned movement lawyer, thought leader and writer with over a decade of experience in housing rights and racial justice. Currently, Leah is the Managing Attorney for Housing Policy at Mobilization for Justice and she also serves as a Commissioner on the New York City Planning Commission. In 2022, Leah published the influential article, Professionalism as a Racial Construct, in UCLA Law Review. The article has been featured in Forbes, Teen Vogue and Dame Magazine and is taught in over 20 law schools, business schools and universities. Leah received her J.D. from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Law and her B.A. from Vassar College. |
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A graduate of Harvard College and Columbia Law School, Misasha Suzuki Graham has been a practicing litigator for over 15 years, and is passionate about diversity, equity and inclusion in the legal profession as well as in her communities. She is a facilitator, writer, and speaker regarding issues of racial justice, especially with regards to youth, the co-author of Dear White Women: Let’s Get (Un)comfortable Talking About Racism, and the co-host of Dear White Women, a social justice podcast. Misasha, who is biracial (Japanese and White) is the proud mom of two very active multiracial young boys. |
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Ron Tyler is a Professor of Law and Director of the Criminal Defense Clinic at Stanford Law School. The Clinic represents clients in the superior courts of California. Prof. Tyler’s scholarly agenda focuses on self-care skills for lawyers and criminal practice and procedure. His article: The First Thing We Do, Let’s Heal All the Law Students: Incorporating Self-Care Into A Criminal Defense Clinic, 21 Berkeley J. Crim. L. 1 (2016) is available at: http://scholarship.law.berkeley.edu/bjcl/vol21/iss2/1. Read more here. |
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Richard Thompson Ford is the George E. Osborne Professor of Law at Stanford Law School.
He writes for both scholarly and popular audiences and has published in newspapers and journals such the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, the San Francisco Chronicle, The Christian Science Monitor, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Boston Review, Esquire.com and Slate as well in such scholarly journals as the Harvard Law Review, the Stanford Law Review and the Yale Law Journal. Read more here. |
