News Blog

Legal scholars, educators and community leaders from across the nation joined to discuss the impact of power and privilege on America's democracy and the future of the nation's children. In a session moderated by Charles Ogletree, law professor and executive director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard, four panelists highlighted the importance of civic engagement in communities of color, which have been most recently threatened by voter suppression efforts. 

Joining the panel was Donna Brazile, political strategist, syndicated columnist and television commentator, who said she got her start in politics at the age of nine. "And it was simply a request to build a playground in our community that motivated a child like me to go door to door, urging my friends to get their parents to go and register to vote. That was 1969. And here we are in 2012…I never thought I would see the day when we would spend most of our time and our resources protecting and defending the gains that we've made." 

Click here to read more.

WASHINGTON, DC (March 22, 2012) — The National Bar Association (NBA), the nation’s oldest and largest association of African American attorneys and judges, has issued an urgent call for a review of Florida's 'Stand Your Ground' law following the death of 17-year old Trayvon Martin.

On February 26, Martin was gunned down after George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch captain, shot and killed him after he claimed that the unarmed Martin came after him and he fired in self defense.

NBA President-Elect John E. Page stated, “The lack of any apparent justification under all disclosed information and circumstances should have led to the arrest of Mr. Zimmerman. All available evidence, anecdotal or otherwise, simply does not support the outcome here. Therefore, we join the call for the immediate arrest of Mr. Zimmerman to avoid additional harm to the public. The absence of an immediate arrest and interrogation of the known suspect to better develop the facts has left the public and parents of all children around the country outraged.”

Read the full letter here: http://www.nationalbar.org/sites/default/files/TrayvonMartin_0.pdf

The Palm Beach County offices of international law firm Greenberg Traurig, P.A. were selected by the Palm Beach County Bar Association's Committee for Diversity & Inclusion to receive the first annual Judge Edward Rodgers Diversity Award.  Palm Beach North office Administrative Shareholder Tracy L. Gerber and Shareholder Bridget A. Berry accepted the award on behalf of the firm at the 2012 Bench Bar Conference, which was attended by over 1000 lawyers, as well as judges from Palm Beach's County Court, the 15th Judicial Circuit, the 4th District Court of Appeal and Florida Supreme Court Justice Barbara Pariente. 

The inaugural Diversity Award acknowledged Greenberg Traurig's commitment to diversity as reflected in its recruitment, retention and promotion of diverse individuals.  The Diversity Award also recognized the firm's commitment to the local Bar's diversity programs, its efforts to foster an inclusive and equitable work environment, and its participation in community outreach and engagement efforts designed to help those of diverse backgrounds enter and prosper in the legal field. 

Click here for more information.

Chicago-based law firm Butler Rubin Saltarelli & Boyd LLP has awarded its annual diversity scholarship to University of Chicago Law School student K. Alex Kiles. Kiles becomes the seventh recipient of Butler Rubin's annual scholarship focused on fostering diversity in the legal profession.

Kiles is currently a first-year law student and expects to receive his law degree in 2014. In addition to a $10,000 renewable scholarship for tuition and other expenses associated with law school, Kiles will work as a 2012 summer associate at Butler Rubin.

Congrats to Alex! You can read more here.

As reported by Law.Com, Ndidi Moses, an officer of the Connecticut Bar Association brought up the lack of diversity within the association.
Now the Connecticut Bar Association is creating a new effort designed to diversify the ranks of CBA leadership and CBA's president Keith Bradoc “Brad” Gallant reportedly thinks these changes are long overdue.

Click here for more information on this story.

NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund has just announced its 2011 scholarship recipients. JD Diversity congratulates all of the recipients of this prestigious honor.

Here's a list of the The 2011 Earl Warren Legal Training Program Scholarship Recipients:

And you can click here to view the press release.

This months' issue of Black Enterprise takes a look at what’s working—and what’s not—for women of color in the legal profession...

Excerpt:

THE LEGAL PROFESSION CONTINUES TO BE ONE OF THE MOST challenging industries for black women. Although studies, statistics, and personal testimonies show that female attorneys tend to fare better in corporate legal contexts than in law firm settings, even the corporate environment presents many familiar challenges, such as managing internal politics, finding appropriate and effective mentors, and attaining access to senior-level executives.

In a new study conducted by Corporate Counsel Women of Color (www.ccwomenofcolor.org), a support group for its more than 2,500 members who work for large corporations, these challenges are addressed. Through a Web-based survey and live audience testing at the organization’s fifh annual conference, The Perspective of Women of Color Attorneys in Corporate Legal Departments reports data from 1,300 female attorneys of color who were asked to reflect on their professional experiences in the workplace—ranging from promotional opportunities and barriers to advancement to comparisons between law firms and corporate settings.

We recommend that you pick up this month's issue for the full story. You can also click here to read a synopsis of the article by Sonia Alleyne.

A former stockroom worker for Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (A&F) sued the clothing retailer in federal court Monday, saying she was illegally fired after refusing to remove her Muslim headscarf while on the job.

Hani Khan said a manager at the company's Hillsdale Mall location (in San Mateo, CA) hired her while she was wearing her hijab. The manager said it was OK to wear it as long as it was in company colors. However, four months later a district manager and human resources manager asked if she could remove the hijab while working, and she was suspended and then fired for refusing to do so.

This is the latest employment discrimination charge against the company's so-called "look policy," which critics say means images of mostly white, young, athletic-looking people. However, A&F says that it does not tolerate discrimination.

Click here for the full story.

Legal community will gather today (Thursday) in Gary, Indiana to honor Hilbert Bradley . . .

When Hilbert L. Bradley returned to Indiana after being discharged from the Army, the World War II veteran decided he would take advantage of the G.I. Bill and apply for enrollment at Valparaiso University School of Law. It was 1947, a time when segregation was the unwritten "law." But Bradley received a surprise.

"They welcomed me right away," Bradley recalled. "And three years later, I was the first African-American graduate there."

Bradley went on to do great things with his law degree. In 1957, he lobbied Congress for the passage of the Civil Rights Bill. He marched in the 1963 March on Washington with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Poor People's March on Washington in 1968. Also during the 1960s, Bradley founded the Fair Share Organization to advocate equal employment opportunities for African-Americans. Bradley later went on to found the Indiana Coalition for Black Judicial Officials.

Read more about Bradley and his retirement here.

*The retirement dinner for lawyer and civil rights activist Hilbert Bradley. Will be held in Gary Indiana at: Avalon Manor, 3550 E. U.S. 30, Hobart at 6 p.m today.

Tickets are $50 each and are available at the McCain Law Offices, 5655 Broadway or via telephone at: 884-0696. 

Wondering how to firm up your firm's commitment to diversity? This article on Diversity-Executive.Com cites many good suggestions for law firms on how to quell attrition rates, and foster the type of environment in which minority attorneys can thrive. One line from the article:

"If a firm’s leadership is only willing to change to the extent needed to attain certain diversity numbers, diversity and inclusion values will remain separate from the firm’s culture. The business benefits of diversity cannot be the firm’s only motives. Solely relying on the “business case” for justification will not sustain momentum, nor will it hold up to detractors’ arguments over the long term."

Amen.

Click here to read the rest of the article. It offers a lot of good pointers.

Of course this is a multi-faceted issue. However, JD Diversity contends (and is founded on the premise that) diversity will never truly be realized within the profession unless there's an open and honest dialogue about minorities' experiences within the legal workplace. Unfortunately, the closest we ever seem to come to the type of candidness needed to forge progress is confined to legal complaints--like that filed against Mayer Brown by Venus Springs in May of 2009. In the complaint Ms. Springs noted issues like "assignment to an office away from her peers, [lack of] customary clerical, paralegal, and associate assistance, [lesser] training, [and] exclusion from client lunches."

However, elsewhere such honesty is woefully lacking. The conclusion we've drawn is that people (especially minorities) are afraid to be truthful about their experiences, as they seek to avoid adverse ramifications to their legal careers.  Therefore, such problems, rarely being brought to light, are never rectified.

JD Diversity seeks to quell such fears by encouraging associates and partners alike to be honest about the true barriers to diversity progress in the legal profession.

Let's talk about it.

We all know by now (hopefully) that mentoring is keenly important to the success of diverse law students and attorneys.  Judge Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama's nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court, is a testament to this fact.  As shown in a recent New York Times news story, she was closely mentored by Judge Jose Cabranes.  Cabranes, who is also Puerto Rican (and who also graduated from Yale Law School) served as Yale's general counsel before being appointed to the federal bench in 1979.  Sotomayor initially met Cabranes at a luncheon.  “At the end of the lunch, Jose offered me a summer job.  I accepted, and Jose became my first legal (profession) employer, then my mentor and career advisor,” Sotomayor said.  Although their paths eventually diverged (and Sotomayor took on other mentors like Judge Miriam Cedarbaum (S.D. NY)), Cabranes was the person who encouraged Sotomayor to apply for a district attorney position, and who put her on the judgeship track.

Guess those luncheons can be helpful after all.  Anyway, you can read the full story here (NYT) or here (The Chicago Tribune -- "Through key recommendations from influential mentors, the Supreme Court nominee built up a civic resume before taking the bench.")

By the way, Sotomayor has acknowledged many other mentors including "a debate coach who recruited her to Princeton, a law firm partner who pushed her to seek a judgeship, [and] a pioneering female judge who bonded with her over a shared disdain for any hint of philosophizing from the bench."  Let this be a lesson to us all about the power of mentoring.

Help a fellow law student out--you could be mentoring the next Supreme Court justice! 

Diversity pipeline programs are all the rage these days in the legal profession. Well, maybe not exactly, but they are gaining momentum, and that's a step in the right direction.  The idea is that taking a more active role with students prior to the actual legal job application process will increase the profession's chances of creating and maintaining a diverse group of attorneys. 

NALP arguably spearheaded this pipeline approach when it announced the creation of the Diversity Pipleine Initiative and its Street Law Program. The Street Law Program pairs participating NALP member law firms with local high schools, and commits practicing lawyers and other legal professionals to teaching law-related topics to high school students. As reported today on Law.Com, many other companies, firms, and organizations are involved in this program.

Another such program is the San Francisco Bar Association's 'Destination Law School' project, which aims to increase the number of members of underrepresented groups attending law school through partnering with bay area middle and high schools.  Similarly, Gordon Rees announced a pipeline initiative-- theirs starts with middle school children, sponsoring trips for seventh and eighth graders to the firm's San Francisco office.  Another firm, Farella Braun & Martell has a similar program in place.

Then recently, top law firm Akerman Senterfitt, announced that it had created a pipeline initiative with FAMU Law School. That firm's Diversity Committee Chair, Joseph W. Hatchett, is a FAMU alumnus. The pipeline initiative ultimately aims to place more FAMU Law grads at Akerman.

We hope to see more pipeline initiatives like these, as they can only help to increase diversity in the profession. Perhaps other sectors of the legal profession besides law firms could create such programs so that students will be exposed to many different aspects of the profession, rather than just law firms. We also hope that the attorneys who participate in these pipeline programs will play active and consistent roles in them. Too often we hear from law students and young attorneys who say that they heard from their mentors once or twice and then never heard from them again. Middle and high school students are far more vulnerable to disappointment than adults, so dependability will be key. 

Writing an article geared towards hiring (and firing) managers within Philadelphia firms, Wesley R. Payne, partner at White & Williams, and Chair of that firm's diversity committee, shared his thoughts on diversity within the context of economic downturn.

As firms cut budgets, he recommends that they maintain strong diversity programs, saying "...fewer dollars should not mean the lessening of a firm's diversity efforts . . .  nor should the weak economy be used as an excuse to disproportionately affect a firm's diversity efforts . . . good business sense dictates that, in a weak economy, diversity efforts must be part of a firm's long-range plans."

Click here to read the full piece.

Although the school year is coming to a close, not all of the law student scholarship deadlines have passed.

Two wonderful scholarship opportunities are featured in our Featured Fellowships Section this week. Both opportunities have deadlines of May 15th.

You can read about them here. Good luck!