Erin Keith currently serves as Managing Policy Counsel for the Detroit Justice Center (DJC). In this capacity, she leads the organization’s policy strategy and analyzes legislation to remove legal barriers in the criminal legal system. Erin formerly served as a staff attorney in the Legal Services and Advocacy Practice (LSAP) at DJC. In this role, she focused on criminal legal system reform through a racial equity lens, by providing direct representation to indigent and/or formerly incarcerated clients. Erin has also led the organization’s youth empowerment efforts, by developing Know Your Rights workshops and other outreach programming for local students.
Erin graduated summa cum laude from Howard University in 2013 with her B.A. in Political Science. She then attended Georgetown Law, where she graduated in 2016 with her J.D. and in 2018 with her LL.M. Before joining the Detroit Justice Center team, Erin served as the Juvenile Defense and Policy Fellow for Georgetown’s Juvenile Justice Initiative. In this role, Erin focused her policy research, legal advocacy, and project development on the intersection of race and gender to promote culturally responsive, youth-led juvenile justice reform.
Erin has also served as a judicial intern for a juvenile judge in D.C. Superior Court and as a Summer Associate for Miller, Canfield, Paddock, and Stone, P.L.C. Additionally, she interned with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the U.S. Department of Justice in the Public Integrity Section, the U.S. Department of State, and the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia, in the Juvenile Services Program.
In 2016, Erin published two articles: “She Could Have Been Me: A Tribute to Renisha McBride,” in the Harvard Journal of African American Public Policy, and “Wronged Without Recourse: Examining Shortcomings of Compensation Statutes for Black Exonerees,” in the Georgetown Journal of Law and Modern Critical Race Perspectives. In 2017, Erin was selected as one of ten fellows nationwide for the National Juvenile Justice Network’s Youth Justice Leadership Institute. In addition to authoring opinion editorials for various news publications, Erin has shared her perspectives on CNN, Michigan Radio, and NPR. She is a member of both the State Bar of Michigan and the District of Columbia Bar.