In this episode of the Demystifying Diversity Podcast, host Daralyse Lyons dives into the complicated world of the United States legal system. This episode offers an up-close look at the ways in which the law, and its implementation, can both promote and prevent inequality. Her guests on this episode include lawyers and legal experts who provide context for how the United States arrived at its current legal system, and what a path forward looks like for ensuring greater inclusion and equityl.

In this episode, you will learn about:

* What ‘legal precedent' is, and why it is pivotal in creating policies and laws that shape people's experiences.

* How the United States prison system is, in many ways, a modern-day perpetuation os slavery.

* How the United States education system promotes compliance with policing and ‘status-quo' forms of government.

* How zero-sum interpretations of litigation work create division and limit creative collaboration.

* The disparity between various paradigms of justice, and the importance of standing up for what is right, despite opposition.

Our guests experts this episode include:

Charlotte Alexander - Charlotte holds the Connie Dee and Ken McDaniel women Lead Chair as an Associate Professor of Law and Analytics at the Colleges of Business and Law at Georgia State University, where she uses computational methods to study legal text with a particular focus on understanding how courts process and resolve employment disputes and other types of civil lawsuits. She also founded and directs the university's legal analytics lab, which works towards a legal system that embraces data to solve intractable problems and create a more just society.

Damon West - Damon is a college professor, internationally known keynote speaker and Wall Street Journal best selling author of The Coffee Bean, A Simple Lesson to Create Positive Change, which Forbes listed in the Top 20 Books You Need to Read to Crush 2020.

Deborah Atella - Deb is the author of the international best selling book, Is This Job My Jam? The Guide for Grown-Ups Who Still Don't Know What They Want to Be. She's also a certified life coach, Reiki master and meditation guide. I'm the host of the Atella Like It Is podcast.

Timothy Welbeck - Timothy is the Director for the Center of Anti-Racism Research, and an Assistant Professor of Instruction at Temple University, a civil rights attorney, a scholar of law, race and culture, a writer and a hip-hop artist.

Tomar Pierson-Brown -Tomar is the Associate Dean for Equity and Inclusive Excellence and a Clinical Associate Professor of Law at University of Pittsburgh School of Law. She's also the director of the Health Law Clinic, which operates as a medical legal partnership with UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh.

Jacqui Lipton - Jacqui is a Law Professor at the University of Pittsburgh and an attorney. She's also a literary agent who founded Raven Quill Literary Agency before moving to her current agency, the Tobias Literary Agency, and she's the author of numerous academic texts and the book Law and Authors, A Legal Handbook for Writers

Liz Brown - Liz is an associate professor, law and Taxation at Bentley University, who earned her BA from Harvard College and her JD from Harvard Law School. Liz represented Fortune 100 companies for 13 years prior to joining Bentley's faculty.

Chair Charlotte Burrows - Chair Burrows was designated by President Biden as Chair of the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, EEOC on January 20th, 2021. She has served as a commissioner of the EEOC for multiple terms, and previously served as Associate Deputy Attorney General at the United States Department of Justice, as well as General Counsel for Civil and Constitutional Rights to Senator Edward M. Kennedy.

Crystal Harold - Crystal is an associate professor in Human Resource Management and app, Paul Anderson Research Fellow at Temple University's School of Business. Prior to pursuing her current career path, she worked as a strategic human resources consultant for numerous governmental agencies, including the Air Force, the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, and the Department of the Interior.

Arthur Garrison - Arthur has more than 15 years of criminal justice, academic, and practical experience. Before joining academia, he worked as a pre-sentence investigation officer, a criminal justice planner, and a senior researcher. He has written more than 25 policy reports and evaluations on various initiatives. Including drug treatment, adult and juvenile crime prevention and reduction programs, crime pattern analysis, and law enforcement, crime reduction programs, and he's presented more than 30 papers at various state, regional and national criminal justice and policy conferences. Arthur is also the author of Race and Criminal Justice, History, Rhetoric, Politics and Policy, and the Author of Change to the System, the History and Politics of Black Incarceration in America.

Steph Gantman Kaplan - Steph is a partner at Blank Rome and was listed in the 2020 Philadelphia Business Journal as Best of the Bar: Employment Litigation. She is also a child advocate.

Leora Eisenstadt - Leora is an associate professor in the Department of Legal Studies, a Murray Schusterman Research Fellow, and the Director of the Center for Ethics Diversity and Workplace Culture, CEDWC. Leora is also an assistant producer and consultant for the Demystifying Diversity Podcast.

Jolly Good Ginger - Jolly is on the board of directors for two nonprofit organizations, Families United and Justice Reform Group. As a national level activist, Jolly travels the country and attends rallies, marches and protests, gives speeches at various venues and has garnered a social media following of over 1 million subscribers. As he points out, racism is embedded into every aspect of our society, and deeply entrenched in the American legal system.

Sharrona Pearl - Sharrona is an associate professor of bioethics and history at Drexel University, a historian, theorist of the face and body, and she's authored numerous books, scholarly essays, and freelance articles. Sharrona told me that her research turned up the disturbing reality that at one time in our nation's history, many prisoners were subjected to plastic surgery.

Natalie Pederson - Natalite is an associate professor of legal studies at Drexel University's LeBow College of Business, Vice President of the Employment Law Section of the Academy of Legal Studies in Business and the Secretary of the Mid-Atlantic Academy of Legal Studies in Business.

Click here for a full transcript of this episode.

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The Legal System: Justice, Injustice, Law, and Disorder