Filmed During the 2022 Oklahoma Access To Justice Summit
Welcome and Opening Plenary: The Relationship Between a Diverse Legal Profession and Access to Justice
Description
Hear inspiring remarks from Professor Carla Pratt, the Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher Chair for Civil Rights, Race, and Justice in the Law at the University of Oklahoma College of Law. A welcome and introduction will be provided by Katie Dilks, Executive Director of the Oklahoma Access to Justice Foundation.
Speaker
Carla Pratt
University of Oklahoma College of Law, Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher Chair for Civil Rights, Race, and Justice in the Law
Carla D. Pratt joined the University of Oklahoma this fall as the Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher Chair in Civil Rights, Race and Justice in Law in the College of Law. Prior to joining OU, she served as Dean and Professor of Law at Washburn University School of Law in Topeka, Kansas. Prior to joining Washburn in July 2018, Dean Pratt served as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, the Associate Dean for Diversity and Inclusion, and the Nancy J. LaMont Faculty Scholar and Professor of Law at Penn State’s Dickinson School of Law. As a law professor, Dean Pratt has taught courses in Constitutional Law, Federal Indian Law, Education Law, and Race and American Law, and has produced scholarship at the intersection of these areas of law with particular emphasis on understanding the role of identity in law and legal institutions. Professor Pratt has also served the legal profession and the greater community. From March 2012 to March 2018, she served as an Associate Justice for the Supreme Court of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in Fort Yates, North Dakota hearing cases that presented a constitutional question under the United States Constitution and/or the Standing Rock Sioux Constitution. While living in Kansas, she also served as a member of the Kansas Advisory Committee to the U.S Commission on Civil Rights. Professor Pratt currently serves as a member of the Council to the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar. The Council is recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as the national accrediting agency for law school JD programs. Professor Pratt has published in academic journals, trade journals, and the popular press including the New York Times and the Philadelphia Inquirer. Professor Pratt’s published work in the area of constitutional law has focused on race conscious affirmative action and balancing civil rights and civil liberties. Professor Pratt’s most recent publication is an essay in the Rutgers Race and the Law Journal arguing that the legal profession could achieve greater diversity if it created diverse pathways to attorney licensure. Professor Pratt has received many awards for her advocacy seeking to make the legal profession reflect the population that it serves. Prior to entering legal academia, Professor Pratt engaged in the private practice of law as a commercial litigator with the law firm of Drinker, Biddle and Reath LLP in Philadelphia and served as a Deputy Attorney General in New Jersey. She is a member of the bar in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
Disclaimer: All views or opinions expressed by any presenter during the course of this CLE is that of the presenter alone and not an opinion of the Oklahoma Bar Association, the employers, or affiliates of the presenters unless specifically stated. Additionally, any materials, including the legal research, are the product of the individual contributor, not the Oklahoma Bar Association. The Oklahoma Bar Association makes no warranty, express or implied, relating to the accuracy or content of these materials.