Law School-Based Street Law Prorams

Many law schools around the country have public legal education, or Street Law, programs in place.  Each of these places law students in high schools or other community settings to teach about practical law.  Law students focus on building knowledge and skills among the groups they teach.  For more information, visit the law school-based program pages.

Diversity Pipeline Focus

This program helps the pre-existing Street Law programs at several law schools adapt their approaches as a way to enhance diversity in the legal profession.  The aim is to encourage high school students of color to pursue higher education and legal careers.  Research shows that students are more likely to pursue careers for which they have positive role models, an informed understanding of the pathway to that career, and a sense that they possess the skills necessary to succeed in that career.

In order to address these factors, Street Law designed a program with ten law schools to add career-focused components to their existing law-school programs where law students teach practical law to high school students.  Through training and technical assistance from Street Law, these programs added lessons, field trips, workshops and other activities designed to teach the high school students about legal careers and career pathways, allow them to participate in skill-building activities, and interact with their partner law students as career role models. 

Pilot Law Schools

The following schools participated in the 2006-08 pilot program:

• University of Akron School of Law
• Georgetown University Law Center
• Loyola University Chicago School of Law
• University of Miami School of Law
• Marquette University Law School
• Minnesota Justice Foundation (collaborating with Hamline University School of Law, the University of Minnesota Law School, the University of St. Thomas School of Law, and William Mitchell College of Law)
• North Carolina Central University School of Law
• Roger Williams University School of Law
• University of San Francisco School of Law (collaborating with U.C. Berkeley School of Law, Golden Gate University Law School, and UC Hastings College of Law)
• Wayne State University Law School

Resources for Participating Law Schools

Law School Diversity Pipeline Program Curriculum and Handbook

The Curriculum and Handbook has all the resources needed to add a diversity pipeline element to your Street Law program!  Find guides to training, activities, lesson plans, fundraising, evaluation, and more. 

To access the Curriculum, you must first create an account.  If you already have an account, visit the Curriculum and Handbook page to download the entire book or individual lessons and Tip Sheets.

Additional Program Resources

Additional LSAC Resources

• The Pipeline Diversity Directory - a joint project of LSAC and the ABA, is an ever-growing online searchable database of projects, programs and initiatives that encourage and equip minority students to pursue legal careers
• Research from the LSAC
• DiscoverLaw, a web site from LSAC for first- and second-year undergrads
• Frequently Asked Questions by Minority Applicants
• LSAC Office of Diversity Initiatives
• LSAC’s Video Collection

Additional Legal Diversity Resources

• Building a Better Legal Profession - a resource designed by Stanford law students that publishes diversity statistics of large law firms to encourage them to increase their diversity. 

Resources from the American Bar Association

• Presidential Advisory Commission on Diversity in the Profession
• Law Student Division – Diversity Programs
• Raising the Bar – Pioneers in the Legal Profession from the Division for Public Education
• Young Lawyers Division – Diversity Initiatives
• Young Lawyers Division – Choose Law

 Other Organizations Focusing on Diversity

• www.acc.com – The Association of Corporate Counsel is Street Law’s partner in the Corporate Legal Diversity Pipeline program (see also www.streetlaw.org/acc)
• www.mcca.com – The Minority Corporate Counsel Association advocates hiring, retention and promotion of minority attorneys in corporate legal departments and in the law firms that serve these corporations.  They have a magazine, Diversity and the Bar.
• www.nalp.org – Click on Resource Center at the NALP site for a diversity best practices guide for law firms, and for a description of law firm diversity initiatives (see also www.streetlaw.org/nalp)
• www.prldef.org – The Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund has a variety of pipeline initiatives.