Being rooted in community provides a very unique and difference-making perspective that assures an awareness of issues that ordinary individuals deal with that are routinely ignored by the upper echelons of power. Yet the ability to connect authentically and engage with regular people and achieve a genuine and greater understanding of their needs and aspirations is a necessary component of any good advocate, lawyers not excluded.

Attorney Patterson demonstrates this key quality in her multifaceted community engagements and prominent civic duties in Detroit, her hometown and the headquarters of Patterson Justice Counsel.

When not consulting with clients or taking on their cases in court, Attorney Patterson is fully immersed in her role as the President and General Counsel of The PuLSE Institute, a nationally renowned independent, nonpartisan anti-poverty think tank, the first of its kind, located in Detroit.

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As President and General Counsel, Attorney Patterson oversees the overall operation of one of the most important independent anti-poverty institutions in the nation, whose work is deeply rooted in the history of giving voice to the claims of the oppressed and disenfranchised in society. Patterson guides regulatory compliance and advises the Board of Directors on long-term and high level business and legal strategies. In doing so, she also ensures the Institute’s authentic and community-focused programming runs consistently, with high caliber, solutions-oriented presentations to address the challenges of poverty in the community.

Patterson has also contributed her legal expertise and advocacy skills to The PuLSE Institute, authoring an amicus brief before the United States Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in support of the groundbreaking right to literacy for Black schoolchildren in Detroit in the historic Gary B. v Whitmer case. Her consistent support of the case in publicly advocating for poor school children in Detroit in her capacity as leader of The PuLSE Institute helped the plaintiffs in reaching a favorable settlement with the case.