Overview

The program tackles the lack of diversity in the legal profession by focusing on strategies that will encourage students of color to enter the legal profession. It provides students with role models, connections with legal professionals, and the opportunity to experience the types of work lawyers do. Students are able to broaden their impressions of the legal profession and fuel their interest in legal careers. The program sets out to achieve these objectives through four program components: training, classroom visits, a conference at the corporate headquarters, and program extensions for the most promising students.

To become involved in the Corporate Diversity Pipeline Program, contact:

Lee Arbetman, executive director (240.821.1310, larbetman@streetlaw.org) or

Megan Hanson, senior program director (240.821.1316, mhanson@streetlaw.org).

Program Components

Street Law pairs each participating corporate legal department with one or more high school classes. Street Law provides training to the corporate volunteers and participating teachers, as well as guidance on topic selection and lesson plans. There are four components to this program:

1. Training: Street Law provides a four-hour training session for all volunteers and the partner teacher. At this session, we choose topics to teach and plan out the semester.
2. Classroom Visits: Legal department volunteers visit their partner classroom 2-6 times over the course of the semester to teach about topics in civil law and the legal profession.
3. Conference at the Company: Students attend a day-long field trip. They participate in interactive, authentic workshops on legal topics where they utilize the skills and knowledge acquired over the course of the semester. The students also attend a career fair at the conference, where they learn about the variety of legal jobs in the corporate sector.
4. Enhancements: In the second year of the program, most corporations offer some sort of follow-up with the most promising students – several have offered job shadow days, mentoring, internships, or scholarships.

Corporate partners

As of January 2012, the following corporations were conducting diversity pipeline programs in conjunction with Street Law, Inc. and their local schools:

• McDonald's Corporation (Oakbrook, IL)
• The Coca-Cola Company (Atlanta)
• Central Pennsylvania ACC Chapter (Hershey, PA)
• PPG Industries, Inc. (Pittsburgh)
• General Motors Corporation (Detroit)
• Fannie Mae (Washington, DC)
• Merck & Co., Inc. (Whitehouse Station, NJ)
• Marriott International, Inc. (Bethesda, MD)
• Southern California Edison (Rosemead, CA)
• Marriott Vacation Club International (Orlando)
• Chicago ACC Chapter (Chicago and Elgin, IL)
• CA, Inc. (Islandia, NY)
• Allstate (Chicago, Washington DC, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, New Jersey, Orlando, Miami, Hartford, Seattle, Dallas, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Atlanta)
• Macy’s (Cincinnati, St. Louis, San Francisco, New York, Atlanta)
• DuPont (Wilmington, DE)
• Discovery Communications (Silver Spring, MD)
• Intelsat (Washington, DC)
• General Electric (Chicago and Erie, PA) and GE Energy (Atlanta)
• Southern California ACC Chapter (Los Angeles)
• Wyndham Worldwide & Wyndham Vacation Ownership (Orlando)
• International Paper (Memphis)
• Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. (Atlanta)
• Eli Lilly & Baker and Daniels (Indianapolis)
• BlueCross BlueShield of TN & Chambliss Bahner & Stophel (Chattanooga, TN)
• NBC Universal (New York)
• Washington Metropolitan Chapter of the ACC (Washington, DC)
• Burger King Corporation (Miami)
• Pfizer (New York)
• Exelon (Chicago)
• Computer Sciences Corporation (Falls Church, VA)
• Washington Chapter of the ACC (Seattle), with sponsorship from Safeco Insurance
• Fox Entertainment Group, Inc. (Los Angeles)
• Lockheed Martin Corporation (Bethesda, MD)
• Verizon (Basking Ridge, NJ & Arlington, VA)
• Dallas-Fort Worth ACC Chapter (Dallas)
• UPS (Atlanta)
• HP (Palo Alto, CA, Berkeley Heights, NJ, Houston, TX, Plano, TX, and Washington, DC)
• Association of Corporate Counsel – Delaware Valley (DELVACCA) Chapter (Philadelphia)
• WellPoint, Inc. & Bingham McHale (Indianapolis) and WellPoint, Inc. & Balch and Bingham (Atlanta)
• HMSHost Corporation (Bethesda, MD)
• U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General's Corps (Washington, DC)
• Caterpillar Inc. (Peoria, IL)
• AT&T (Dallas & Atlanta)
• Nationwide (Columbus, OH)
• Central Florida ACC Chapter and Holland & Knight (Orlando, FL)
• Baxter International, Inc. (Chicago)
• St. Louis ACC (St. Louis)

General Information

• Video: Creating a Pipeline to the Legal Profession
• Video: Pfizer General Counsel Amy Schulman discusses the Pipeline Program
• Program Brochure
• Program Components & Topics
• Logic Model for Increasing Diversity in the Legal Profession
• Evaluation Findings

Electronic Library

Street Law has compiled extensive resources, lesson plans, conference workshops, and career fair ideas on our password-protected electronic library. Participating sites are encouraged to download already-prepared lessons and activities for use with the students.