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Improving Diversity Through Pipeline Programs

by Olivia Clarke

July 8, 2008 | Chicago, IL

Before 18-year-old Clayton Wilson started participating in mock trial competitions, his perception of lawyers was what he saw on television.

But by interacting face-to-face with members of the legal community, Wilson said, “We are able to have a feeling of where these guys are from. In some cases their stories are replicas of where we are. It gives you a picture of what’s down the road. You are able to see that you can be a lawyer.”

Wilson was one of about 150 black male teens who participated in the Chicago Bar Association’s First Annual Donald Hubert Scholars Mock Trial Competition. Dressed in white shirts and red-and-yellow ties provided by the CBA, the teens spent the day in law firms and legal departments learning how to work up a case.

Members of the legal profession rated the students’ ability to represent the plaintiff or the defendant or to be a witness. The students with the highest ratings participated in the final mock trial later that afternoon in a federal courtroom.

While waiting for the results, judges and lawyers pointed out the judges’ photos decorating the walls and told the students that they too could have legal careers. Many of these professionals also shared their stories of how their economic backgrounds growing up mirrored the students’ lives.

“Kids need this in their lives. They need options,” said John Coleman, a sophomore at the Academy of Communications and Technology Charter School who participated in the competition. “Events like this help them by encouraging them. They get to see older black men and they can think they can be like them, instead of those selling drugs on the street.”

Many lawyers and judges recognize that to create a more diverse legal community they must get involved in these types of pipeline programs because they widen the path for more minority and female students to attend college and law school.

Reaching young people before they graduate from high school, and teaching them early on about college may be the best way to improve the pipeline because waiting until law school may be too late.

And without improving the pipeline, the legal community will continue to lack the diversity it needs.

According to Chicago Lawyer’s 2008 diversity survey, 5 percent of the partners in the 92 firms that provided data are minorities, and 15.5 percent of all associates are minorities—numbers that essentially mirror last year’s statistics.

Victor P. Henderson, a partner at Holland & Knight and president of the CBA, said the mock trial program encourages teens to think down the road, and consider what they want their lives to be like.

“Black male students, in particular, are disproportionately underrepresented in law schools,” Henderson said. “When they see a significant number of black men, in this case, who look like them and have gone through [law school], all of a sudden it opens up a world of possibilities.

“In a grand sense, the law and legal profession won’t be able to maximize their usefulness to society until man and woman, blacks and whites and Latinos are equitably represented in the profession, because all of these folks bring different viewpoints of the law.”

The issue at hand

Venu Gupta, executive director of the Chicago Committee on Minorities in Large Law Firms, said the Chicago Tribune reported in 2006 that six out of 100 Chicago public school freshmen will earn a bachelor’s degree by their mid-20s. ForAfrican-American and Latino male freshmen, three out of 100 will earn a degree by age 25, she said.

According to Chicago Lawyer’s diversity survey, 21.7 percent of the law students attending the nine local law schools surveyed are minority students.

“If we don’t work to increase the number of [diverse] students who go to college, we won’t change what law firms look like,” Gupta said. “In the past, the law firm community has been hesitant to get involved prior to law school because it was difficult to measure their return. But thankfully that has changed.”

Law firms and corporate legal departments will make real progress when they work together, Gupta said. If the trend doesn’t get reversed or the pool doesn’t get increased, then diversity in law firms will not improve. She said reaching young people before college may have a greater impact.

The committee is partnering with Scholarship Chicago, an organization that works to empower talented, academically ambitious, and broadly diverse students with college and career options.

They’ve created a joint initiative, Chicago LegalTrek, that they hope will bring together different legal organizations that already work on expanding the pipeline. The plan is to assist students every step of the way, and provide them with the substantive knowledge they need to understand the legal profession and consider law as a career, Gupta said.

Karen G. Foley, president of Scholarship Chicago, said two main tasks affect whether teens attend college.

First, the navigation process, such as completing financial aid forms and college applications, can be challenging to students, Foley said. Secondly, students face difficulty in finding the right colleges for their skills and aspirations.

“If you can reach them early enough and let them know what it is that is required—give them the opportunity to match their course work with their career aspirations; give them an opportunity to have access to professionals in their field; and as they mature give them internships—they will step up and they will be great candidates for law school,” she said.

David Morrison, hiring partner at Goldberg Kohn, is working with Scholarship Chicago and the Chicago Committee on their joint pipeline initiative. He helps, through the initiative, to coordinate the process of creating internships, mentoring, and other opportunities for firms to work with students.

Morrison said he grew up in a family that encouraged education. His father was a college professor, and his grandfather practiced law.

“I knew my path would be different if I didn’t have exposure to higher education and law as something I could do,” he said. “I didn’t have a family that was wealthy and I didn’t have a family with a lot of connections, but I was able to make a career out of something I was interested in.”

Making a difference

Nineteen-year-old Chanta Williams wants to run for political office or become a U.S. Supreme Court justice some day.

While attending Jones College Prep, she was selected to participate in the Mikva Challenge,which tries to develop the next generation of civic leaders, activists, and policy-makers. This program sent her to Scholarship Chicago, which selected her to participate in a five-year program that combines mentoring, college access, and career opportunities.

Through that program she worked last summer at Jenner & Block, an internship she plans to do again this summer.

Williams looked up politicians’ backgrounds, and discovered that many of them practiced law. Her internship at Jenner introduced her to different types of legal careers.

“If I didn’t have programs like Scholarship Chicago, I never would have really known that it was possible for me to do this type of thing,” said Williams, an incoming junior at Spelman College in Atlanta. “Somebody who comes from a family like mine, I didn’t see [lawyers] within my own family … It exposes you to things you wouldn’t otherwise get exposed to. I think that exposure is very important.”

Lindsey Dates, a Jones Day associate, knew in high school he wanted to be a lawyer.

During a high school mock trial class he begged to be a lawyer but was assigned to be a witness. He said he found it odd that the male students were usually assigned to be witnesses or bailiffs, but rarely lawyers.

Dates, a mentor to teens through Phi Rho Eta Fraternity, said he wanted black male teens to see what it’s like to practice law. As the event chair, he helped organize the Donald Hubert Scholars Mock Trial Competition—an event that inspired him.

“There is one particular student in our mentorship program, Terrell Tillman, that we have tried, unsuccessfully, to turn around academically,” Dates wrote in an e-mail. “He just so happened to be one of the students who had the privilege of sitting on the bench with Judge [David H.] Coar.

“I saw Terrell coming up the stairs at the reception. He made a point to stop me, look squarely into my eyes, and quietly say, ‘I am going to get my grades tight.’ Having worked with him for some time now, I could sense that for the very first time, it clicked for him. He wasn’t just saying it. In that one simple moment, I could see the pride in his face. He will make good on that promise. The tide has turned in his life.”

Dates said the volunteers also benefited from the mock trial competition.

“I have talked to several young African-American male lawyers who all share my experience,” he wrote. “I have practiced for five years now, but until [the mock trial competition], I never really felt as though I was a member of the profession.

“I went through the motions of being a lawyer, but I never felt as though the profession was my own. I felt like a stranger in a new world, unable to identify with much of what I saw.”

“Now, for the very first time, I feel like I am a member of the club—one that has taken an interest in those who are just like me,” Dates wrote. “Not only that, I am a member of a noble profession. I was awed by so many lawyers, from every background, who took a genuine interest in this often overlooked demographic —a demographic that is far more likely, than any other one, to have negative interactions with the legal system. For that, I am truly grateful.”

In-house help

Chanel West, a sophomore at Hirsch Metro High School, sits with her friends at a DLA Piper conference table. It’s not where they usually hang out, but they are about to embark on a day of workshops about the legal profession.

“I like interacting with real lawyers and real judges,” West said. “[Lawyers] help people who need them. I know there is a lot more work than what you see on TV … I think it is a good idea for students to see the profession. For kids who want to pursue the profession of law, to interact with lawyers gives them a goal.”

West was one of about 75 students from Hirsch Metro High School, Wells Community Academy High School, and Mather High School who participated in the Association of Corporate Counsel Chicago/Street Law Pipeline Program. The program is based on a prototype created by Street Law, Inc., and the ACC.

ACC Chicago hosted two of these programs, one in the city and one in Elgin. ACC Chicago members, and lawyers from DLA Piper and Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal volunteered their time to educate students about the law and about legal careers. The program includes attorneys visiting classrooms to help teach law-related lessons, and a one-day conference involving interactive workshops.

“It’s hard to describe how itmakes you feel to see something like this come to fruition,” said Jenifer Robbins, general counsel of FPL Advisory Group and immediate past president of the ACC Chicago chapter. Starting the program was a focus of hers during her term.

“We ask students to fill out evaluations at the end of the day and one of the students from Mather wrote, ‘I loved everything about this program. In fact, it was the best experience I ever had.’ And a student from Hirsch wrote, ‘I liked everything about today. It was a great experience that I will remember forever.’

“Overall,” Robbins said, “exposing them to new experiences, positive role models, and engaging them in things they’ve never done has a myriad of benefits we probably cannot see.”

The students participating in the program are at a stage in their lives where they are trying to decide who to become, said Jason L. Brown, president-elect of the ACC Chicago chapter and director of legal for PepsiAmericas, Inc.

“We want to leave the profession better than what we came in with — at least that’s my goal,” he said. “If we have an opportunity to impact young minds, and young kids can realize that becoming a lawyer is something possible, something even within their grasp, I think it’s important for us to do that.”

The ACC Chicago chapter also has a summer minority internship program for first-year law students, Brown said.

Diversity in the legal community is improving, but more must be done, he said.

“You are still hearing some major corporations having their first woman at a certain level or their first insert minority group here,” Brown said. “And it’s 2008. At 2008 we are still seeing women and minorities completing firsts in a profession that has been around since the beginning of this country.

“Yes, we have made strides. Yes, things are improving. But we can definitely do much, much better.”

Street Law, Inc. is a national program that started in 1972 as a way for Georgetown law students to go into Washington, D.C., high schools and work with students. Since that time more than 60 other law schools participate in Street Law programs, said Lee Arbetman, director of U.S. programs at Street Law, Inc.

Around 2001, Street Law created its diversity pipeline program, which began with corporate legal departments and ACC chapters going into classrooms and talking about the law and about legal careers, Arbetman said. It also includes students visiting law firms, legal departments, and courtrooms to learn hands on about the profession.

“The challenge is, it’s hard for any high school student to envision what he or she is doing seven or eight years down the road, especially with certain financial challenges,” he said. “I think the key thing is to get started with a partnership with high school law classes. As a result of that, these bright young high school students can have a positive experience with one or more lawyers.”

The next step in the pipeline process involves helping promising high school students with college applications, scholarships, and summer internships, Arbetman said.

“You can’t make a major difference in diversity unless a significant number of minority students get into the pipeline,” he said. “You can’t fix the problem without an effective

pipeline program as part of the solution.”

Different avenues

The CBA and the Chicago Bar Foundation created what is today the Sun-Times Judge Marovitz Lawyers Lend-a-Hand to Youth Program about 15 years ago.

In 1994, Thomas Demetrio of Corboy & Demetrio created the Lend-A-Hand Award of Excellence, with a desire to impact the lives of Chicago’s underprivileged children by recognizing the efforts of exceptional tutor/mentor programs in the Chicago communities. The CBF, with the leadership of the CBA, initiated the program in 1995.

The program promotes one-on-one mentoring relationships that foster consistent, long-term bonds between the mentor and the young person, said executive director Karina Ayala-Bermejo.

The organization, through a $2 million award, now provides grants to one-on-one mentoring programs across the state, she said. It also recruits attorneys and judges to serve as mentors, and connects law firms with young people on various projects.

Many studies show that young people need to be reached in elementary school in order to make a difference and widen the pipeline, Ayala-Bermejo said. If programs wait until high school or college they may miss a large percentage of people who do not complete high school, she said.

“I think the vision, now that we are able to make substantial grants, is to reach beyond the traditional college and even law school student and expand that, and really reach into elementary schools and plant the seeds as early as possible,” she said. “Our program is unique in that we focus our outreach on one-to-one mentoring … We support programs that start in kindergarten and go throughout college and law school.”

The Just the Beginning Foundation is a nonprofit organization that supports students of color and other underrepresented groups by providing free educational and mentoring programs to increase diversity in the judiciary and legal profession. Its programs try to help students find a path toward a legal career.

The foundation has a summer legal institute in June for 40 high school sophomores, juniors, and seniors. The students watch court proceedings, hear about practice areas, do oral arguments, tackle college essays, prepare for the ACT test, and work on networking, said executive director Paula Lucas.

“I think in terms of the law, it gets them away from what the TV says law is like,” Lucas said. “But it lets them know that it still is exciting and can be glamorous and it can be earthy. We also actually have them see people that look like them, are similar to them, and have stories and backgrounds similar to them. Everyone did not grow up with a silver spoon in their mouth.

“They might not eventually end up in the pipeline, but that’s okay, because the point is to bring them along and have them be part of this other world.”

Many firms initiate their own pipeline programs through local organizations.

Mark Bernstein, a partner and chair of the diversity committee at Barack Ferrazzano Kirschbaum & Nagelberg, said his firm gets involved with many community pipeline programs.

For example, it is involved in Alternatives, Inc.’s restorative justice program. The firm invites high school students, through the organization, into its offices for field trips, seminars, training, and discussions about law as a career.

Bernstein said the firm wants to give students exposure to this career choice, and demonstrate to its lawyers that it’s committed to improving diversity.

“People should feel comfortable here, whatever their background, because we are dedicated to trying to open up the profession,” he said. “Will this have an impact? We hope so. But obviously we will not know for quite a while.”

Kirkland & Ellis participates in a number of pipeline programs, and the firm also regularly offers job shadowing and internships to teach students about legal careers.

Kevin Evanich, a partner at Kirkland, is chair of the Communities In Schools of Chicago, which repositions existing community resources into schools to help students successfully learn, stay in school, and prepare for life.

“Eighty-five percent of the students in Chicago Public Schools live below the poverty line,” Evanich said. “You can imagine the number of problems Chicago public school students bring to school. They are hungry. They have no place to live. They are unsafe. They may be abused.

“What Communities In Schools does is provide free services to the public schools to deal with all of those ancillary issues so teachers can focus on education.”

He said he’s learned that improving any issue involving young people takes time. Law firms must not only work to improve the number of minority lawyers, but must also

provide the mentoring so that they stay in the profession, he said.

“My aspirations and, I think, the firm’s aspirations are that minority lawyers would be represented in our law firm and other large law firms in the same percentages as they are represented in the community,” Evanich said.

“They need to reach back as far as they can to make sure that talented kids of all types are given the opportunity to succeed at every level. They need to make a commitment to finding and recruiting the very best minority lawyers.

Source: Chicago Lawyer (Reproduced with permission)

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Corporate Legal Diversity Pipeline Program

Topic: Diversity