Stop Blaming The Pipeline For The Lack Of Diversity In The Legal Profession And Start Investing In It

“Stray bullet hit a young boy with a snotty nose / From the concrete, he was probably rose / Now his body froze and nobody knows what to tell his mother.” — J. Cole

On Monday, I had the opportunity to speak at the Legal Inclusiveness & Diversity Summit in Denver, Colorado. After my keynote speech, an attendee asked me: “What are your favorite or what do you believe are the most innovative diversity and inclusion initiatives currently being offered by law firms?”

I responded: “1L summer diversity programs and high school pipeline programs are two of my favorite D&I initiatives. Because they can fundamentally educate, impact, and change the entire trajectory of those who never knew an attorney growing up or were completely unfamiliar with how law school education, summer associate positions and clerkships, and legal hiring works.”

I firmly believe the 1L Minority Clerkship that the Grand Rapids Bar Association and Floyd Skinner Bar Association awarded me has fundamentally altered the trajectory of my legal career. And I will feel forever indebted to Carin Ojala, the Director of Professional Development for Warner Norcross & Judd LLP, who was generous enough to show me the ropes and help me succeed throughout law school and my clerkship summer experiences.

Little did I know that at the end of the Summit, the Center for Legal Inclusiveness would announce sponsorship opportunities for their Journey to JD (J2JD) Program — a one-week residential program in Denver for 20 rising high school juniors.

In J2JD, students gain a basic understanding of the legal system and explore the possibilities of a career in the law while being supported, mentored, and encouraged to attend college, law school, and pursue legal opportunities in Colorado. If you are a rising high school sophomore in the Rocky Mountain region, I strongly urge you to apply during the next application cycle.

Earlier this week, I also discovered a national scholarship pipeline program opportunity for our ATL audience — the Law Preview Scholarship. This year, sponsors will fund 650 full scholarships for incoming law students at 62 law schools to attend a Law Preview law school prep course, where they will learn how to excel as 1Ls from some the nation’s leading law school professors and attorneys.

The deadline to apply for a Law Preview Scholarship is Tuesday, May 15. If you are an incoming law student, I strongly urge you to commit your weekend to filling out this application. But you don’t have to rely on my recommendation alone. I reached out to the largest sponsor of this program, Latham & Watkins LLP, to talk more about this initiative. The Partner and Chair of Latham’s Diversity Leadership Committee, BJ Trach, responded:

As a strong supporter of diversity in the legal profession, Latham & Watkins understands how important it is for students to succeed during their first year of law school – which is why the firm has proudly sponsored Law Preview Diversity Scholarships for hundreds of recipients over the past eight years.

In addition, I had the opportunity to catch up with Gabrielle Lyse Brown, the Executive Director of Diversity and Inclusion at the New York City Bar (City Bar), to discuss the importance of pipeline programs. Brown responded:

Pipeline programs are critical to reversing the issues that we have reported over the last decade for minority and women attorneys. A long-term investment in a student’s academic and professional career must be made to ensure his or her success in the profession.

At the City Bar and in partnership with a number of regional pipeline organizations, we begin working with students in high school and continue to provide support and resources through college, law school, and in the early stages of their career. Our comprehensive programming is designed to address academic support and enrichment, professional and substantive skill development, networking/mentoring opportunities and exposure to the legal profession.

The program has grown in the last ten years to a robust network that includes students that participated in our Thurgood Marshall Summer Law Internship Program, a career-immersion program for high school students, who have gone on to become members of the profession, our Committees, and mentors to the next generation of lawyers.

For many of the students in the program, the Thurgood Marshall Program is the first exposure they have to lawyers, law students, and legal environments, and this experience often provides a foundational platform for their future career trajectory. In addition to the hands-on work experience, the students can connect with role models, mentors, and peers that will help them to address any academic, financial, or personal obstacles on the path to practice.

This week, I also spoke with another impressive legal pipeline program alumnus, Khaair Morrison.

Morrison is a current 3L at Howard University School of Law. He’s been fortunate enough to participate in the City Bar’s Thurgood Marshall Summer Law Internship, BARBRI’s Law Preview, and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and affiliates’ Summer Associate Program. Below is a (lightly edited and condensed) write-up of our conversation:

Renwei Chung (RC): Can you tell us more about your experience with the City Bar’s Thurgood Marshall Summer Law Internship Program?

Khaair Morrison (KM): I believe in 2009 or 2010 I was blessed with the opportunity to join the City Bar’s Thurgood Marshall Program. It was a program that gave high school students the opportunity to intern at law firms, in-house, and other areas in the legal field.

In addition, the coordinators would meet with us weekly to give us career tips, networking tips, and other guidance to help us be successful over the summer. I guess it is what sparked my interest in becoming a lawyer.

RC: Can you tell us about your experience with BARBRI’s Law Preview Program and how it helped prepare you for the rigors of law school?

KM: Law Preview was probably one of the best decisions I made in preparation for going to law school. I think when you decide to go to law school you get tons of advice from both lawyers and nonlawyers, but honestly much of that advice was not substantive.

I think Law Preview helped me with understanding the substance and the structure. I used the advice that the course gave me to create a schedule, understand what I should be doing outside of the class, and brace myself for the experience.

RC: How did you choose Howard University School of Law?

KM: Howard was an easy choice for me, it is “the mecca.” The law school that Thurgood Marshall, Pauli Murray, and Charles Hamilton Houston plotted out the strategy for Brown vs. Board of Education.

I knew Howard was a place where I could learn the law through the lens of a “social engineer”, at a time when there is so much injustice taking place across the country and world. It was a place where I could leave and know I could both do good and do well.

RC: As a current 3L, what advice do you have for incoming 1Ls?

KM: Preparation and discernment. I never understood what preparation meant until law school and how far preparation could go in helping you be successful at almost any task.

Additionally, praying to God, the universe, or whatever you believe in for the ability to discern the advice you get. You will have a lot of people from law students, to lawyers, to nonlawyers giving you advice on classes, careers, and life; but you need to be able to discern what to take and what to leave.

RC: On behalf of everyone here at Above the Law, I would like to thank BJ Trach, Gabrielle Lyse Brown, and Khaair Morrison for taking the time to share their thoughts with our audience. We wish them continued success in their respective careers.

The diversity crisis cannot solely be placed on the shoulders of law firms. Nor can we blame law schools entirely for the utter lack of diversity in our industry. But it’s time we face the music — minorities in the legal profession have grown by less than 1 percent since 2000.

The diversity problem in the legal industry doesn’t have to continue to be a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma. It’s no longer good enough to say we value diversity and then systematically underrepresent women and minorities. We need to step up and take ownership of this issue. It’s elementary, my dear friends.

Without significant changes, diversity in the legal industry will remain on life support. Diversity pipeline programs in legal education can fundamentally educate, impact, and alter the entire trajectory of those who never knew an attorney growing up or were completely unfamiliar with how law school education, summer associate positions and clerkships, and legal hiring works. In other words, pipeline programs can breathe new life into our industry.

Any successful blueprint for diversity and inclusion in our profession must be paved with deep, rooted pipeline programs.

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Renwei Chung is the Diversity Columnist at Above the Law. You can contact Renwei by email at [email protected], follow him on Twitter (@renweichung), or connect with him on LinkedIn.