{"id":3888,"date":"2020-05-01T08:23:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-01T12:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/?p=3888"},"modified":"2020-04-21T15:20:09","modified_gmt":"2020-04-21T19:20:09","slug":"in-the-interest-of-justice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/2020\/05\/01\/in-the-interest-of-justice\/","title":{"rendered":"In the Interest of Justice"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Photo by Andr\u00e9 Chung<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Baltimore attorney Dena Robinson \u201912 joined the prestigious Public Justice Center as its Francis D. Murnaghan Jr. Appellate Advocacy Fellow last September. She soon found herself in even more rarified air when, just three months later, she appeared before the Fourth Circuit of the Federal Court of Appeals for an employment discrimination case. \u201cThe court only hears oral arguments in about 9% of the cases sent to them,\u201d she says.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The case involved a black man who was fired on his first day on the job by a white boss. The reason? The boss conducted an internet search and found a years-old newspaper crime story that mentioned, but did not implicate, the employee.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cOne of the judges asked me to define implicit bias on the record. We haven\u2019t gotten a judgment yet, but if our case proceeds, that might make it easier for future plaintiffs in race discrimination cases in that court to claim implicit bias,\u201d Robinson says. \u201cIt was an incredible opportunity.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The fellowship is just the latest in Robinson\u2019s 360-degree exploration of social justice, advocacy, and the law. While studying at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and the University of Maryland School of Law, she had one high-profile internship after another. She researched LGBTQ asylum seekers and transgender inmates for Lambda Legal. She worked in the Civil Rights of Persons with Disabilities Clinic for the National Association of the Deaf. She studied children\u2019s rights and prison conditions litigation at the Southern Poverty Law Center.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAt times, impact litigation can lead attorneys to be out of touch with reality, because there isn\u2019t direct contact with clients,\u201d Robinson says. \u201cSo I worked simultaneously in the community, with students. I didn\u2019t want to forget the stories and people behind the cases that make it to the court.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At Wide Angle Youth Media, she helps Baltimore youth share their stories and engage audiences across generational, cultural, and social divides. \u201cI\u2019m interested in the power of storytelling to shift social systems,\u201d says Robinson, who is the organization\u2019s diversity, equity, and inclusion facilitator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Her next prestigious opportunity awaits in the fall: the Department of Justice\u2019s Honors program at the Civil Rights Division, which selects only 12 attorneys out of more than 500 applicants. \u201cThe typical route of most people in the program is to attend an Ivy League law school and do law review,\u201d she says. \u201cI didn\u2019t take that typical path, but my experiences made me deserving, and they picked me.\u201d &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The program is a fast track for a legal career in the justice department. She\u2019s hoping her assignment will allow her to either delve into hate-crime litigation or continue to work on employment discrimination. On the side, Robinson will continue offering diversity, equity, and inclusion training through her consulting business, Radical Roots. \u201cMy driving force,\u201d she says, \u201cis practicing the change I want to see in the world.\u201d&nbsp; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Photo by Andr\u00e9 Chung Baltimore attorney Dena Robinson \u201912 joined the prestigious Public Justice Center as its Francis D. Murnaghan Jr. Appellate Advocacy Fellow last September. She soon found herself in even more rarified air when, just three months later, she appeared before the Fourth Circuit of the Federal Court of Appeals for an employment<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1210,"featured_media":3891,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[544,295],"coauthors":[424],"class_list":["post-3888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-alumni-updates","tag-advocacy","tag-law"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/palXSH-10I","amp_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/04\/Dena-Robinson-10292.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1210"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3888"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4137,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3888\/revisions\/4137"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3888"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=3888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}