Ep 186: Two Law Students Who Took On Systemic Racism in the Legal System

<p><a href= "https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianna-joaseus/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Brianna Joaseus</span></a> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">and</span> <a href= "https://www.linkedin.com/in/edriusstaggnotary/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Edrius Stagg</span></a> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">are two law students at Southern University Law Center in Baton Rouge, La., who spent nine months earlier this year tackling systemic racism in the legal system. On the latest LawNext, they join host Bob Ambrogi to discuss their projects and how their work impacted their goals for their legal careers. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Joaseus and Stagg were two of 18 law students from six law schools who participated this year in the second year of a</span> <a href= "https://lexisnexis.shorthandstories.com/AANLNROLFFellowship/index.html"> <span style="font-weight: 400;">fellowship program</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">sponsored by the LexisNexis Rule of Law Foundation and the LexisNexis African Ancestry Network, in partnership with the Historically Black Colleges and Universities Law School Consortium. (Two students from the program’s first year were featured on</span> <a href= "https://www.lawnext.com/2021/07/on-lawnext-podcast-the-legal-fellows-tackling-systemic-racism-in-law.html"> <span style="font-weight: 400;">this podcast in July 2021</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">.)</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The project Joaseus designed focused on the problem of racial bias in real estate appraisals. Her proposal would reduce appraisal bias by creating a digital checklist for appraisal professionals, developed using LexisNexis resources, that would help identify “red flag” situations in which the appraisal process may be unfair or biased. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Stagg’s project focused on the problem of jury pools that are not racially diverse or representative of their communities. His proposal was to create a “Jury Wheel 2.0” data visu