“We were going to be partners in a law firm – Rudolph and Rudolph,” he said.

Fortunately for Brandon, as a teenager he had access to a program that helped put him on the path to fulfilling that dream of becoming a lawyer – Central High School’s Law and Government Magnet program and its partnership with the University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law. The focus of the program is to give more diverse and underrepresented students a view of the legal profession where diversity has historically been lacking.

“Lawyers are leaders, and diversity in leadership is critical to democracy,” said Laura Rothstein, a former Brandeis School of Law dean and now dean emerita. “In 2001, when Central High School Principal Harold Fenderson invited me to create a partnership between the Brandeis School of Law and the Law and Government Magnet program, I recalled the influences from my own high school days.

“The stories and statistics over the past 23 years make this partnership a win for Central High School, the law school, the university, and the city of Louisville as Central students become lawyers, professionals in other fields, and leaders in the community. Other communities can use our program as a model — a Kentucky to the World example.”

Rothstein has been the main driver for a new documentary film celebrating the success of the UofL – Central partnership. “A Pathway Forward” will premiere to an invitation-only crowd Oct. 9��at 6:30 p.m. at Bomhard Theatre in the Kentucky Center for the Arts. The film will then open to the public at��, Oct. 10-12. A trailer for the film can be found on the��.

Since it began in 2001, nearly 700 Central High School graduates have participated in the partnership, with many of them going on to attend law schools in 15 states. Since 2007, those Central magnet students were not only taking classes from Joe Gutmann, the long-time teacher at Central, but also from UofL law students who have taught Street Law and Marshall Brennan Constitutional Literacy classes to law and government magnet students. To Rudolph, a 2009 Central graduate who is Black, having law school students, some of whom looked like him, teaching classes enhanced his love for the law and gave him the confidence he needed to keep law school as a goal.

“Talking to UofL students who weren’t too much older than me was easier and more comfortable,” Rudolph said. “I could ask them ‘Is law school attainable? Can I do it?’ and they would assure me it was hard but attainable. The UofL students, Dean Rothstein and Mr. Gutmann inspired me.”

And Rudolph eventually became one of those UofL law students teaching the next generation of legal and civic leaders at Central High School. After getting an undergraduate degree from the University of Kentucky and taking a good paying job in manufacturing, Rudolph refocused on his goal and was accepted into Brandeis School of Law. In his second and third years at UofL’s law school, he taught Street Law to Central sophomores and constitutional law (Marshall Brennan class) to seniors. He calls it a rewarding learning experience for both him and the high school students.

“It was only right that I give back,” Rudolph said. “Students would say ‘he looks like me and dresses like me, it’s not so far-fetched that I could do that.’ Those are the same things I thought as a Central student.”

Rudolph is now a practicing attorney with����in Louisville.

As for his brother, he took a different path, graduating from Central High and Eastern Kentucky University and becoming a successful personal trainer. The dream of ‘Rudolph and Rudolph – Attorneys at Law’ is gone but Brandon’s lifelong goal of becoming a lawyer has been realized with a hand from the partnership between Central High School and the UofL Brandeis School of Law.

Story provided by Jefferson County Public Schools.��

Louisville Law Professor����stars in a documentary titled��8:46: The Killing of George Floyd.

The documentary, produced by the��, takes viewers back to May 25, 2020, the day George Floyd was killed.

McNeal, chief legal correspondent for BNC,��interviewed members of George Floyd’s family and several national experts, including Louisville Law’s Professor��. Powell provides commentary on the role of structural inequality in the disproportionate use of force by law enforcement��in communities of color.

The documentary tackles issues surrounding the trial such as police reform and structural inequality within the criminal justice system.

McNeal��will also be covering the trial of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer charged with Floyd’s death, for BNC this month. She says that she is excited about sharing her trial experience with the Louisville Law community.

UofL’s Gheens Science Hall and Rauch Planetarium is offering a of the film before it officially debuts on KET in August.

Preview times are: July 23 at 1 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. and July 27 at 6:30 p.m. The event is free but and offered on a first-come, first-served basis.

The Rauch Planetarium is one of just two Kentucky locations offering the preview (the other is Eastern Kentucky University’s Hummel Planetarium).

“The Farthest” will be shown on KET Aug. 23 at 9 p.m. (8 p.m. Central) and on KET2 Aug. 24 at the same times.

The film marks the 40^th anniversary of the mission. The story of the Voyager’s two ships — each with less computing power than a cellphone — provides details on how scientists used slingshot trajectories to send them to the fringes of our solar system, employed aluminum foil to protect them from radiation, overcame near disasters at launch and equipped the ships with “gifts” just in case they were discovered by aliens.

Before the Louisville preview screening, viewers will also be treated to a brief immersive flight through our solar system using technology unique to UofL’s planetarium.