Civil rights attorney Shaylyn Cochran, Executive Director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, joins The Power Table to discuss her path from journalism to law and what it takes to lead through today's rollbacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion. She reflects on the mentors, family, and history that keep her grounded, and shares hard-won lessons on vulnerability, imposter syndrome, and building a bench of talent behind her.

• Cochran's path from journalism to civil rights law, and how skills like open-ended interviewing and questioning authority now shape her legal strategy and messaging work at the Lawyers' Committee
• The current landscape: the rollback of demographic data collection, the mass exit of Black women from the federal workforce, and the litigation pushing back on executive orders framing DEI as illegal
• Why she believes reclaiming lost ground will take "a generation," drawing lessons from Constance Baker Motley and Civil Rights Movement leaders who acted boldly without a blueprint
• Her leadership style — democratic and rooted in vulnerability — including telling her team when she's running on limited capacity and trusting them to step up
• Wrestling with imposter syndrome as one of the "only" or "first" in the room, and what she'd tell her younger self: "You got it"

The Power Table is brought to you by the California Black Women Collective Empowerment Institute. Learn more here.

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