If the path to justice sometimes resembles a collision course, Professor Kevin Woodson prefers to explore the subtle stories and quiet truths that can get lost in noisy legal battles.

One of the newest members of the law school faculty, Woodson developed a keen appetite for government and public policy while growing up in Bordentown, N.J. In high school, Woodson held many positions in student government, including a two-year stint as class president. He took part in Model Congress and the Boys State leadership program. All the while, he harbored two suspicions: that he would become a lawyer and that government could alleviate inequality.

At Columbia University, Woodson's interests expanded to include sociology, social policy and the philosophy of law.

Along the way, Woodson realized that some of the friends back home had followed a collegiate path like his, while others had landed in jail.

But Woodson, who'd made the dean's list each year and graduated magna cum laude atop other honors, went straight to Yale Law School without passing Go.

He then got a job with the mega-firm, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr, where his projects included defending corporations accused of health-care and accounting fraud and a pro bono case involving civil rights litigation against an East Texas narcotics task force that in 2000 arrested more than two dozen innocent people.

While taking part in a deposition for the pro bono case, which became the subject of the movie, "American Violet," Woodson experienced an epiphany. A sociologist who served as an expert witness offered nuanced insights about how the war on drugs tends to unfairly target sectors of communities. Hearing that testimony and the transfixing narrative it portrayed stirred something in Woodson.

"Law is about big ideas and powerful claims," he said. "The expert's testimony and the care in her analysis reminded me what I was missing."

And so back to school Woodson went, pursuing a master's degree in sociology and a Ph.D. in sociology and social policy at Princeton University.

Woodson's return to academia allowed him to explore scholarly interests inspired by his own experiences as a successful student and young professional at a high-powered law firm.

"My firm, like many others, had problems retaining high numbers of black attorneys," Woodson said. "Many left for one reason or another."

As the firm sought to address this pattern, Woodson realized that some of his black peers felt that they labored in a hostile environment, while others flourished.

Their disparate views began to fascinate Woodson, who realized that the vast body of sociology scholarship contained scant content on the topic and that law journals favor impassioned viewpoints over nuanced narratives.

"I was more interested in the stories," said Woodson, who began studying the reported experiences of young black professionals who work in law, finance and corporate management.

That work is ongoing, but Woodson has already concluded that much of the literature that exists on workplace discrimination paints a distorted picture.