Renowned US lawyer Jasmine Rand has spent much of her career fighting to get justice for the families of Black people who have died as a result of state violence.

As a female lawyer trying to break through in a male-dominated world, Ms Rand, who runs her own law firm in Miami, Florida, has faced myriad obstacles.

But she’s also experienced inequality from the other, more privileged side. As a white woman working on civil rights cases, Ms Rand acknowledges that she will never fully understand the racial injustice that she works so hard to fight.

“Early on in my career, I acknowledged the limitations I have based on my race because I will never understand what it is to be Black and I will never understand what it’s like to be discriminated against (in that way),” Ms Rand, who’s from Vermont in Washington, told The Independent.

“It’s a unique position to be in, where I’m working in this area as a lawyer and an academic but can never fully understand because I’m not a racial minority.”

She adds: “My goal is to serve my brothers and sisters. I think when you’re serving with really a pure heart, people see that.”

She is arguably best known for her work with the families of Trayvon Martin – a Black teenager who was shot dead by a neighbourhood watch coordinator in Florida in 2012 while walking home from a trip to a convenience store – and George Floyd – whose death at the hands of a white police officer in 2020 sparked global protests – but has won multimillion-dollar cases in catastrophic personal injury, wrongful death cases and state violence cases.

After receiving her law doctorate, Ms Rand began working with Benjamin Crump, a leading civil rights attorney