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Last week I had the honor and opportunity to visit Chicago to present at the Chicago Committee on Minorities in Law Firms Pipeline Symposium. It was an impressive array of presenters and the expertise in the sessions was extraordinary.

As is often the case at these convenings, I found myself thinking about why we cannot do a better job on diversity in the profession when there is so much intellectual heft behind the idea. At this meeting there was a panel on the work of other professions (who are ahead of us in diversity), which gives more impetus for trying to understand the direction of the legal profession. Always interested in learning what others are thinking on the why…?

The Saturday Academy of Law is a pipeline project that seeks to interest high school students in law-related careers and support and improve their academic preparation and analytical skills to assure that these careers are meaningful possibilities. The Irvine Saturday Academy of Law is modeled after similar pipeline outreach initiatives in the medical professions including the Charles Drew Saturday Science Academy.

Initially funded by a grant from Verizon and CaliforniaALL, the Saturday Academy of Law shares many of Drew’s successful features and goals, as well as some of the Sunnyside doctor academy attributes, as it works “to develop the critical reading/writing and speaking skills that will prepare high school students for higher education and professional success” and “to create excitement and knowledge about the field of law through purposeful activities and interactions with faculty, undergraduates, law students, and legal professionals.”

In this work SAL builds on a long-standing collaborative history with the Santa Ana school district, where partners include ENLACE among others. The SAL program operates under the guidance of two key committees, a program-wide Oversight group and a working cross-disciplinary Curriculum Committee. I am privileged to serve on both of these comitttess and to thus have the opportunity to watch this program flourish and grow.

SAL is based in the Santa Ana Unified School District (SAUSD), which is California’s fifth largest school district. SAUSD’s 57,000-plus students are 92% Latino and 54% English language learners; nearly 75% of SAUSD students qualify for free or reduced lunch. SAL works with cohorts of students from this population for six Saturday classes developing critical reading, writing, and speaking skills in a highly interactive class environment.

SAL uses a curriculum specifically designed for its program. For example, in their first week, there is an explanation of the pathway to the legal profession; that is, that to be lawyers takes high school graduation, college, and then law school. This explanation is complemented by a general discussion of how important law/lawyers are in society. Also in their first week, students are exposed to the Seminar Model (including a rubric for choosing an Outstanding Lawyer of the Day and model questions for seminar practice); take an evaluative pretest to gauge attitudes toward the law and legal profession, knowledge of the Constitution, and writing ability in a timed situation; discuss what makes an effective leader; and engage in a breakout activity on the classic No Vehicles in the Park exercise. For the second week, participants have a homework assignment to survey five peers and five adults on a survey of six questions about First Amendment Rights, e.g., “Can schools prohibit students from wearing T-Shirts, buttons or other articles of clothing that contain a political or religious message?—Yes or No.” Beyond the curriculum, students also meet guest speakers (who come from similar backgrounds) to learn about careers in various law fields and about the journeys of those who are involved in such careers.

Students completing SAL then move into other UCI Pipeline Programs in the Center for Educational Partnerships, including being matched with mentors for the rest of their high school careers to assure they have academic, college, and career support. I am especially interested in hearing from others engaged in Saturday (once a week type) outreach pipeline programs.

The Diversity Pipeline Collaborative is the new name for the Wingspread P20 Consortium.  The Wingspread name came originally from the first meeting of seven law-schooled centered teams that met under the auspices of the Johnson Foundation at Wingspread http://www.johnsonfdn.org/. Since the original meeting the Wingspread group has grown and is finally taking on its own corporate 501(c)(3) organizational structure. This new formality and name will support the groups efforts and enable it to receive grant funding directly.

THE DIVERSITY BOOK SERIES

Book 1: Diversity Realized: Putting the Walk with the Talk for Diversity in the Legal Profession

This book explores the diversity issues confronting the legal profession. It acknowledges the breadth and seeming intransigence of the problem and recognizes that in the current milieu achieving diversity approaching that of the population is virtually impossible. The book discusses at length the issues in the education system—the leaks and breaks all along the educational pipeline–that contribute to the achievement gap between white and Asian students and underrepresented minorities. Then, recognizing the strengths of the legal community to address these very issues– for shorthand what the Gates Foundation has called the New 3Rs: Rigor, Relevance, and Relationship, the book offers a series of interventions where the legal community has seen success in narrowing the achievement gap and stopping the leaks.

Book 2: Education Pipeline to the Professions: Programs that Work to Increase Diversity (Spring/Summer 2010).

This is the follow on to the first Diversity Realized book, the first being more theoretical, this one being more practical. The book is a series of descriptive chapters on successful pipeline programs written primarily by the leaders of those programs.

Draft Table of Contents

Book 3 and beyond: Diversity Compendium

The Diversity Realized series contemplates additional titles of working materials for teaching along various sectors of the pipeline. Some materials are in the public domain and others will be separately published. Thoughts on materials are welcomed.