You’ve heard from us at the Commission on Professionalism many times about how lawyers need to work together to improve diversity in the legal profession – including diversity in gender, race, and sexual orientation.
When discussing diversity in terms of race, did you know only 3.3 percent of practicing lawyers in the United States today are black? For this reason, action has been taken by a number of organizations to create more opportunities for African American law students.
The ABA Law Practice Division, The National Association of Minority & Legal Women Owned Law Firms (NAMWOLF), the Institute for Inclusion in the Legal Profession, and six Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) are coming together to host Talk2Ten – an online career fair for African American law students.
Talk2Ten will have a number of legal professionals from law firms and corporate legal departments across the country video conference individual law students from the six participating HBCU law schools: Florida A&M University College of Law; North Carolina Central University School of Law; Thurgood Marshall School of Law; Howard University School of Law; The University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law; and Southern University Law Center.
Each participating legal professional is asked to meet with ten different students for 15-30 minutes to discuss the in’s and out’s of the legal profession and give law students a taste of what it’s like to be a legal professional in this day in age.
These six HBCUs were selected for their “diversity-rich” classes of students, and a pathway to success for many African American professionals.
According to an article in Law Practice Today, A United Negro College Fund study estimates that 70% of black doctors, 50% of black engineers and teachers, and 35% of black lawyers have at least one degree from an HBCU school. Interesting, right?
Mark your calendars. The online career fair officially began on Monday, but runs now through January 26th, and will take place at LexSchola.com, a popular networking site for law students.
Registration is now open, so check it out!