Law Schools

T14 Law School's Law Review Appoints Its First Black Male Editor-In-Chief In History

What is your law school doing to encourage diversity on its law review?

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Tomi Williams (Photo via LinkedIn)

Which elite law school is the latest to appoint a minority student to lead its prestigious law review?

That would be Columbia Law School, which recently welcomed Tomi Williams as the first black male editor-in-chief of the Columbia Law Review in its 117-year history. “I thought I was being pranked. I was mostly in disbelief,” he said about his ascencion to the role of EIC.

For the past few years, law reviews have made great strides in terms of diversity and inclusion, in that women and students of color now find themselves at the top of their publication’s masthead. Williams joins Harvard Law Review president Michael Thomas (the second black student to become EIC in two years), Michigan Law Review editor-in-chief Megan Brown (the first black student to serve as EIC in the Review’s 116-year history), and California Law Review editor-in-chief Djenab Conde at Berkeley Law (the first black woman to serve as EIC in the Review’s 106-year history).

These are all major accomplishments for diversity, but Williams wants to do more. In an interview with the New York Law Journal, he said he wants to encourage more diverse students to consider becoming a part of the publication.

He’s visiting affinity groups, holding writing workshops and planning racial bias training to recruit and retain students of color. First-generation law school students are unlikely to know that being on a law review is crucial when competing for the most competitive jobs, he said.

“The people who really grasp the gravity of it are people finding out the information from parents and siblings,” he said. “It ends up being the same people missing out on these great opportunities because we’re not communicating well enough about the benefits.”

At elite law schools like Columbia, being a member of the law review can open up doors to prestigious employment opportunities like federal clerkships and Biglaw associateships, but Williams is concerned that diverse students are being excluded. “How do we target people who historically feel law review won’t be helpful for what they want to do in life?” Williams wondered. “I think make sure the promises we’re making on the recruitment end that we fulfill those promises when they get there.”

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Williams says that the diversification of the school’s publication is a top priority:

Continuing to diversify the Law Review staff is another priority. “We’re looking at how to make sure we’re bringing in enough diverse individuals in terms of gender, race, socioeconomic status, disabilities, religious backgrounds, and ideologies of all types,” he says. “We want to make sure that the culture and the conversations here are as fruitful as possible because it’s just a better conversation and a more intellectually vibrant community when there is a diversity of thought and background and making sure that we bring folks in with a full sense of participation and ownership.”

Congratulations to Tomi Williams on his election as the Columbia Law Review’s first black male editor-in-chief. We have a feeling he’s going to do great things.

What is your law school doing to encourage diversity and inclusion on its law review? Please feel free to email us or text us at (646) 820-8477 and let us know.

Meet the New Editor in Chief of the Columbia Law Review [Columbia Law School]
Columbia Law Review Has First Black Male Editor-in-Chief in 117-Year History [New York Law Journal]

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Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky has been an editor at Above the Law since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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