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Rothstein, L --- "Shaping the tributary: the why, what, and how of pipeline programs to increase diversity in legal education and the legal profession" [2012] LegEdDig 6; (2012) 20(1) Legal Education Digest 19


Shaping the tributary: the why, what, and how of pipeline programs to increase diversity in legal education and the legal profession

L Rothstein

Journal of Law and Education, Vol. 40, No.4, 2011, pp 551-608.

The 2008 election of President Barack Obama and the 2009 appointment of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court are the most high profile and recent examples of individuals from diverse and disadvantaged backgrounds achieving the highest level of success. Their accomplishments remind members of the legal profession and all Americans that, when given the chance, individuals can succeed in the United States. They have to have the chance, but circumstances must allow them to take advantage of the opportunity. As Malcolm Gladwell writes in Outliers, it is a combination of opportunity and effort that result in success.

A century of legalised racism, followed by decades of institutionalised racism, has resulted in the under-representation of minorities, particularly African Americans, in the legal profession. And yet, some have done so against the odds. Recognition of the need to open the door, give a chance, and provide opportunities that can make a difference highlight the value of institutional efforts to ‘shape the tributary’ or ‘build the pipeline’.

Professor Alex Johnson, at a 2005 conference, focused on the law school pipeline. He noted that the applicant pool is limited by the lack of high school and college completion, attacks on affirmative action, ineffective prelaw advising leading to misapplication, financial issues, discriminatory impact of the overuse of the LSAT, the impact of US News and World Report rankings, law school completion, and bar passage.

Beginning in 2005, the American Bar Association (ABA) and the Law School Admissions Council (LSAC) began a focused effort to increase diversity within the legal profession. The ABA/LSAC effort began with an invitation-only conference in Houston in November 2005. This conference brought together about 100 individuals from legal education and the legal profession.

During the Houston conference, breakout groups identified three target areas to address in order to ‘plug the leak’ in the pipeline: institutional barriers, academic assistance, and networking/mentoring opportunities. The conference also emphasised the importance of collaboration, not only within the legal community, but also outside, such as collaboration with community organizations and social service providers. Finally, conference participants discussed funding as an ongoing challenge. Participants identified four steps for obtaining funding for pipeline projects: (1) prospecting viable sources, (2) gathering information about the sources’ funding priorities and guidelines, (3) building relationships with potential sources, and (4) serving as a liaison between the pipeline project and the funding source.

Pipeline programs have many different ‘sponsors’ including law schools, bar associations, judicial groups, diversity groups such as minority and/or women lawyer groups, law firms, colleges, and national organisations. Also, a range of beneficiaries of these programs includes students in grade schools, middle schools, high schools, colleges (including community colleges), and law schools, and members of the profession itself. The types of programs include mentoring, skills development, advising, bar preparation, and other issues.

While the primary goal of pipeline programs is to increase diversity within the legal profession, another valuable outcome is the impact on those who are involved in providing the program. A greater appreciation of diversity, an opportunity to serve, and other outcomes are often results of such programs. A greater awareness of social justice and a future decision to enter a legal career are some of the outcomes.

Feedback from year end evaluations in the University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law and Central High School Partnership pipeline program provides anecdotal information about the benefits of these programs. In response to the question of why the law student decided to participate, most indicated that they wanted to give back and provide service and to make an impact on the lives of young people. The questionnaire asked whether the experience affected the law students’ awareness of social justice and/or diversity. Most law students indicated that they became more aware.

In recent years law schools, bar associations, and other organizations have implemented a range of programs to build the pipeline.

In making a determination of the type of program to implement, it is important at the outset to decide at least generally the goals of the program. That will drive the content of the program to be provided. Then an assessment can be made about how best to provide a program that will work in each community, with the available resources.

Central High School (hereinafter ‘Central’) in Louisville, Kentucky, has a very special history. It is a magnet high school for several specialised programs, and is the only magnet school for law and government in Louisville. A high percentage of the student body is minority and low income.

There are approximately 30 law and government magnet students in each of the sophomore, junior, and senior classes. During the freshman year at Central, all students rotate through the various magnets. At the end of the year, freshmen apply to be placed in one of the magnet programs for the remainder of high school. For the Law and Government Magnet, students take their social studies courses as a focused magnet program.

In the 2001 partnership program with the law school, students at Central High School were provided a variety of enrichment activities – attending moot court competitions at the law school, some attending programs with keynote speakers at the law school or visiting the law school for a day of introduction to the law school, selected students attending major speaker dinners, and participating in a writing competition. These activities primarily ‘spark the interest’ of students in becoming lawyers.

During the initial years of the partnership, it was apparent that the Central magnet students were bright and interested, but they would benefit from more preparation for college and law school. The goals then became to 1) alert the students to the need for college preparation, 2) provide programming to help with skills development to be prepared, and 3) sustain the interest in law and government.

The following are the primary components of those programs.

The Street Law curriculum was developed at Georgetown University Law Center in the 1970s. Its content covers legal issues and critical thinking skills. The Brandeis School of Law has a mandatory public service commitment through which all law students must complete at least thirty hours of public service as a graduation requirement. While most public service hours must be completed by work at a legal services program, such as Legal Aid, the faculty approved law students to receive public service hours for their involvement at Central. Law students began teaching in this program in 2007.

The Central High School Writing Mentor Program began in fall 2008. The program provides a series of activities including writing skills and vocabulary development. Law students and members of the legal community under the direction of an alumna who was also the former director of the law school’s public service program teach the course content during the junior class social studies class time approximately twice a month. Law students are eligible for public service credit through this program.

Beginning in 2008 three or four faculty members each year began presenting sessions for Central juniors on topics such as immigration, search and seizure, and housing discrimination, usually during the spring semester. Law students are sometimes involved in planning and presenting some of these sessions for which they receive public service credit.

American University Washington College of Law has developed a civil liberties curriculum known as the Marshall-Brennan Civil Liberties Program. Through this program, four or five third year law students teach a civil liberties curriculum to Central seniors. Law students receive academic course credit for a course called ‘We the People’ which was approved by the faculty and which is supervised by a faculty member.

While the content of these classes can be developed or already exists within the programs, law students who teach the material do not have the training in pedagogy, classroom management, assessment tools, student privacy, and state course content on which students will be tested. In recognition of that, four faculty members from the University of Louisville College of Education and Human Resources developed a half-day training session. The session occurs on a Saturday early in the semester and is attended not only by the law students, but by faculty and staff members involved in the program.

Introduction to Law 101 is an undergraduate course offered in the University of Louisville’s paralegal program. Central seniors in the law magnet are eligible to enrol in the class, with a tuition waiver provided by the university. Undergraduate students are enrolled in the class along with the Central students. Students who successfully complete the course can count this towards their undergraduate credits at the University of Louisville, and possibly at other institutions.

The Harlan Scholars Program is an undergraduate program at the University of Louisville for students interested in law as a career. About 12 to 15 high school seniors are selected from a group of applicants from around Kentucky. Upon admission, the students participate in an array of social, skills, and service activities throughout their undergraduate education. Upon successful completion of the program and achievement of an established grade point average and LSAT score, they are guaranteed admission to the Brandeis School of Law.

The participation levels are impressive. The law school has about 35 faculty members and 25 staff members and a student body of about 400. About 30 individuals (faculty and staff at the law school and at the College of Education and from the community) provided at least 700 hours of service for 90 Central students during 2009-2010. Additional time and other contributions were provided by at least 30 additional faculty and staff members for the fundraising event in spring 2010.

Law students (approximately 20-30 each year) provide at least 1500 hours of time in the teaching and mentoring programs. The spring 2010 and 2011 interest sessions for law students were attended by about 60 students each year (out of about 300 eligible students, e.g, those not graduating), and about 30-35 law students submitted forms expressing interest in being involved in one or more of the programs.

Community members support the program in many ways. They provide numerous hours as part of the Writing Skills program, as panellists, at fundraising event, and through financial contributions.

A survey of the Central students demonstrated program success through positive responses on motivation, interest, increased awareness of the legal system by Central students, and an increased awareness of diverse life experiences through teaching by law students.

The general program costs include food for Central student visits to campus, training materials and food at the August training session, transportation costs, materials, gift mugs, awards for the essay competition, and other general costs. These total about $3,000 each year. These expenses are covered by contributions from several individuals and organizations.

Pipeline programs require the commitment and energy of individuals to fill a variety of roles. Critical roles include administrators, teachers, mentors, speakers, program organizers, moot court coaches, and others.

A key element to sustainable programs is ensuring institutional and partner support from a number of areas. If a faculty member or administrator is interested in creating or expanding a pipeline program, the support of the law school administration and the law school community can be critical.

One reason for a law school to develop a pipeline program is the current trend within higher education to be involved in community engagement. It makes such institutions good neighbours and can result in networks of support for other institutional programs.

Pipeline programs are also factors in general positive community building within the institution for students, faculty, staff, alums, and others.

Pipeline programs often start out with the best of intentions by a faculty member or a student organisation or an administrative staff person. It is not unusual for the enthusiasm and energy to last for a year or two. But when handling the details of a successful program start becoming burdensome, pipeline programs can dissolve. The cost of such a dissolution can be loss of trust and good will and of course the lost opportunity to build the pipeline.

Staff members who are to be involved on a regular basis – whether they are administrative staff, clerical support staff, technology staff, or others – should be apprised of the expectations. Support should be available to be sure these staff members have the time and energy for these additional responsibilities.

The dean or other appropriate administrator should ensure that the participants receive credit in their workload allocation or receive release time or otherwise are appropriately rewarded to sustain their involvement in these programs.

The commitment by the legal profession to diversity sets the stage for encouraging bar associations and other groups to support a pipeline program. Depending on the community, the best partner might be a local or a state bar association or group. It might be members of the judiciary or an agency such as Legal Aid.

Many pipeline programs involve law students as teachers, mentors, and coaches or in other roles. The enthusiasm and interest of law students is a great benefit to these programs.

Even students with the best intentions can lose their enthusiasm for volunteer efforts without some incentives. In order to retain sufficient committed and reliable law student involvement, consideration should be given to providing academic credit for coursework, externship credit, or public service credit.

Channelling enthusiasm and energy can be challenging. It is not enough to have law students (or other volunteers) who want to ‘do good’ without some planning for what they are to do and providing them with the tools to do so.

When law students or any other volunteers have regular contact with high school students, it is important to ensure that these individuals have the character and fitness to do so. This includes having the skills and knowledge for the mentoring or teaching, and it also includes having character requirements appropriate to working with this population.

In addition to the law students who might be involved in direct service in a pipeline program, student organizations are important partners in pipeline programs. Student groups such as the Black Law Students Association (BLSA), the Hispanic Law Students Association, the Student Bar Association, and other groups can often be hosts for pipeline activities. They can also help with fundraising activities.

One key to sustainability is not trying to do too much, too soon. Setting realistic goals, developing short term and long term goals and a means of measuring success at appropriate points is essential.

Continuity is critical to sustainability. Having faculty and staff members and volunteers whose time can be dedicated on an ongoing basis to a pipeline program is important. Ideally more than one person understands the details of how the program works, so that if a faculty member has a sabbatical or if someone has an illness or need to be gone for several months, someone can pick up the pieces. One means of doing that is to have manuals, templates, and good record keeping.

How can a pipeline program determine whether it is successful or not? Too often programs are developed without much thought about the specific goals, how to measure whether those goals are accomplished, the preplanning necessary to do useful evaluations, and the costs and benefits of such evaluations.

The first issue is to determine what the goals are. The overarching goal of most pipeline programs is to increase diversity within the legal profession. Many programs, however, have goals that are a subset of the strategic plans to achieve the overarching goals. For example, having more young people from diverse backgrounds recognise that they can be lawyers through ‘spark the interest’ programs can be a goal. Providing information and skills to prepare for college and law school can also be important goals. Staying in school, graduating from high school, gaining admission to college (especially a four year college), successfully completing the first year of college, graduating from college, gaining admission to law school, successfully completing law school, passing the bar, and getting a good job are all goals that are part of the overarching goal.

The Central program currently has evaluation questionnaires for all Central students and all law students at the end of each year.

Information gained from the evaluations has been very illuminating. For example, one of the questions asks the Central students whether the program made them more likely to want to be a lawyer. Several students indicated that while it may not make them want to be a lawyer, the program made them more likely to want to do something that is law related or government related.


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