[ News Article ]
Pre-Law Program Aims To Increase Diversity
By Honor Jones
August 31, 2006
The Legal Intelligencer
There are 1,116,967 practicing lawyers in the United States. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, about 10 percent - less than 114,000 - of these attorneys are members of minority groups.
Villanova Law's Pre-Law Undergraduate Scholarship Program (PLUS) is devoted to reversing those statistics.
For the second year, Villanova University hosted PLUS, a program for minority undergraduate students interested in pursuing a career in law, from June to July. The program's mission is to prepare students of groups who are underrepresented in the legal profession to enter law school as well as to give them a taste of what law school demands and entails.
PLUS is completely funded by the Law School Admissions Council and is one of five similar programs in the U.S., said William James, Villanova's associate dean and PLUS program director.
According to James, the program's mission is to "generate more interest in [minority] students to think about law as a career," and to prepare them for the difficult path towards that career.
Many have expressed frustration at the homogenous nature of the law profession. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 4.7 percent of American lawyers are black or African-American, 3.5 percent are Hispanic or Latino, and 2 percent are Asian.
Out of the 100 top Pennsylvania law firms that responded to the Pennsylvania Law surveys, 5.9 percent of attorneys in the state are minorities. However, out of those 100 firms, only 55 chose to disclose their statistics, so one can assume the actual percentage is significantly lower. The number of minority attorneys holding partner positions at law firms is even lower.
According to Duane Morris corporate litigator, Nolan Atkinson, there is "a lot of work to be done in Philadelphia" with respect to increasing diversity at law firms. Atkinson is chairman and cofounder of the Philadelphia Diversity Law Group, or PDLG, which works to turn these statistics around.
"Diversity is another way of looking at inclusiveness," Atkinson said. "It's very important for any profession to be inclusive. The demographics of the United States are changing very rapidly - in order for [lawyers] to service the needs of their customers," they must be representative of that population base.
And the numbers don't really seem to be improving. Today, the percentage of minorities applying to law school is actually in decline, James said. PLUS, like PDLG, is one of the programs working hard to reverse that trend.
Fourteen students from the historically black universities of Lincoln, Spelman, Morehouse and Cheyney participate in the PLUS program. This year there is also a student from Temple and one from Penn State. They are all rising sophomores or juniors with impressive academic transcripts.
Those accepted study free of charge for six weeks at the Villanova Law School. They take classes taught by Villanova professors and practicing lawyers and judges from the surrounding area.
From 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., their schedules consist of courses such as Legal Research, Reasoning, Writing, Trial Advocacy, Moot Court and Debate, and Critical Thinking. Visiting speakers give survey lectures on tort, criminal procedure, white collar crime, constitutional law and court room strategy. They hold mock trials and even publish their final papers in the Junior Law Review, a Villanova Law publication.
We don't try to pad the courses," James said. The program attempts to really show the students what law school is like, so the professors don't go easy on them. We certainly "load the schedule up," James said.
In addition to the "foundations" of a legal education, students learn the necessary "study habits" that will help them to achieve success in both undergraduate and graduate work, James said.
PLUS student Chad Mance, 19, a political science major at Atlanta's Morehouse College, speaks of the program in glowing terms.
"There's so much potential that's dismissed, unused, untapped" in minority students, he said. That potential is often "in essence excluded" from the legal profession. The PLUS program taps into the frequently overlooked capabilities of minority students. It "helps us become the best that we can be," Mance said, "as intellectuals, as human beings, as extensions of the legal process."
Mance's eloquent earnestness translates into his passion for law and his drive to reform the system. "Law touches everything," he said. "It has a profound effect on the world around."
The consequences of minorities being excluded from the use of this tool could be disastrous. Mance, among others, sees the necessity of "securing the appropriate use of such power for the benefit of mankind," as well as the importance of preventing the potential abuse of that power.
Mance lapsed back, with a laugh, into the voice of a student. "The workload is manageable," he said, but admits that there is often "mental fatigue." He thinks, however, that the program is a "realistic projection of what law school will be like."
"We're definitely prepared" for law school, he said.
The students expressed that they were grateful for the opportunity PLUS provides them. "I'm in a group of individuals that are extremely driven, extremely determined and extremely dedicated to this course," Mance said. They're not complaining about tackling law school classes while still too young to legally drink. According to Mance, they "excuse the work for the greater good" that will be achieved by their successes.
PLUS graduate and current program counselor Amarichi Utah is equally passionate about the program. She has just finished her fist year of law school at Villanova, and said that because of PLUS she "went into it knowing I could do it."
"A lot of first year law students have relatives that are lawyers - fathers, uncles," and that gives them "an incredible edge" over many minority students who "don't know any lawyers, don't have anyone to guide them," Utah said.
"I definitely know a lot of people that won't pursue professional schools because they're not surrounded by professionals. They don't know it's open to them," Utah said. The PLUS program simply demonstrates that a legal education is "a viable option," said Dean James.
According to Utah, it doesn't give its participants a giant head start against their peers, but rather provides them with an "equal footing."
It creates a support system of connections in the legal profession that many minority students would otherwise lack. The students interact with practicing lawyers, law professors and judges. These relationships not only teach the students not to be intimidated by high-ranking people in the legal world, but also help with networking, the necessity of which is a "reality of life" in the law profession, Utah said.
Of course, there is the inevitable question asked in the modern world - if this program is so beneficial, shouldn't it be made available to all exceptional students contemplating law school - minority and majority alike?
According to second year Villanova Law student, Emily Jones, 23, law school is impartially overwhelming. She graduated with honors from the University of Virginia, but was still surprised by the workload. "I would definitely have been interested in a program like PLUS," she said. But she is not a minority student, so would not have been able to participate. Is this entirely fair?
Utah tackled this issue with poise and common sense.
She does not deny that the program could certainly be helpful to "anybody and everybody" considering a law career, and yet, general helpfulness is not the mission of PLUS. "The main idea behind this program," she said, first and foremost, is to increase the numbers of minorities in the law profession.
"The percentage of minority students applying to law school is going down, and I think that's a damn shame," Utah said. "It needs to be corrected," and PLUS is one of the first steps to reversing that decline.
If PLUS wasn't "channeled towards minority groups, if it was open to everyone, the people who need help the most might not be drawn to it."
It is an absolute necessity to have "outreach like this for certain groups," she said.
You can think of minorities within the law profession as a "dying breed," she said. "If the program is available to all the animals, the endangered species will still be dying."
James agreed. "Anybody could benefit from [PLUS] . . . some can benefit more than others." It is not an open program," he said, and was never meant to be. It is "very selective."
The future results of the PLUS program are not yet clear, and yet there are obvious successes. The great majority of PLUS graduates are in law school right now - three, including Utah, at Villanova Law. The students obviously love it, and the faculty, who "work on a volunteer basis . . . think it's very important," said James.
The Law School Admissions Council's original grant was for $100,000 every year for five years, and James fervently hopes to see it renewed. Regardless, he said, "Villanova is committed" to sponsoring a program like PLUS with or without LSAC funding.
The faculty "have shown . . . an unbelievable amount of compassion, care and consideration," Mance said. They are "forging a strong group of intellectuals with a sound foundation in the legal arena."
James said that currently PLUS has to live within the means of the grant, but he would love to see it expand to enroll up to 10 more students each year.
"We make modifications each and every year" to improve the program, James said. It is constantly evolving to better suit the students' needs.
Utah said it has become a "much better projection of what law school is really like since I was in it."
The program was originally held at Lincoln University, but this year transferred to Villanova. Now, PLUS scholars are surrounded by summer law students. They have the advantage of the law library as well as the resource of the Villanova Law School faculty.
Mance said he would recommend the program "hands down."
Utah, similarly, said that she "advertises it every time [she] can." She wants people to know that a career in law "is available to them," and is achievable.
She said she would like to see the program expand out to other schools and reach out to younger students. She doesn't want passionate and intelligent students like Mance, who has been "intrigued" by law since the age of 12, to fall between the cracks in the system.
Utah, Mance, James and Atkinson said they all are optimistic about the future of diversity in the law profession. They anticipate obstacles and opposition, but believe that their goals are attainable.
"Diversity is something that requires hard work and an effort, but I believe law firms are increasingly making it part of their business plan," Atkinson said. According to Atkinson, firms are cooperative - they are "eager to improve" their percentages. "The issue is the mechanics of how to do it."
Although Atkinson said it will take "a lot of work over a sustained period of time," he also said he is "very optimistic that the numbers and statistics will improve," albeit gradually.
According to Atkinson, "the more we talk about diversity, the more we raise the issue," the more we will begin to see a change in the world - one law school, one firm, one city at a time.
This article originally appeared in The Legal Intelligencer and is republished here with permission from law.com.