Blake Strode is a Skadden Fellow and Staff Attorney at ArchCity Defenders, a non-profit civil rights law firm providing holistic legal advocacy and combating the criminalization of poverty and state violence against poor people and people of color. ACD uses direct services, impact litigation, and policy and media advocacy as its primary tools to promote justice, protect civil and human rights, and bring about systemic change. ACD works closely with local organizers and activists in support of their intersectional work and has been very active in protest representation as well as litigation around issues of debtors’ prison, police misconduct and unconstitutional court practices. Blake is a native of the St. Louis region and an alumnus of the University of Arkansas (BSBA, BA ’09) and Harvard Law School (JD ’15). He is a co-author of "Debtors' Prison in 21st-Century America," which appeared in The Atlantic in February of 2016.