Open Season

So I had my first "open house" for 1Ls at a firm in my home city out east. They invited 1Ls from the area but studying at schools outside the region for a special little panel discussion/lunch with associates.

It was interesting, and frankly quite useful, to hear the hiring partner describe in fairly deep detail their selection process, and to hear young associates describe their summer experiences and how exactly they came to choose their practice areas.

But some of the day's events still struck me as a little off-kilter. For example -- I hope this will stimulate some respectful discussion in comments or on the main page -- the first two speakers, the hiring partner and the partner in charge of the firm's "diversity committee" spoke at length -- but not in depth -- about the firm's commitment to diversity. This to a room of 26 law students, of whom 23 are white (two asians and one black). Diversity may be important to the firm, and to most of us applicants it's hopefully important as well, but it wasn't terribly relevant to the audience. To be fair, the diversity committee partner emphasized the steps the firm is taking to improve quality of life for women at the firm, which was likely of more interest to the 11 women in the room.

I suppose what struck me most was not so much that the firm focused so heavily on diversity -- I don't think they should be criticized for that, though I think it was kind of a wasted effort on the particular group I was with. But it saddened me a bit to see the "raw materials" the firm had to work with. Only ONE black 1L in the room. No Latinos. Majority white males. The hiring partner asked -- in a friendly way -- if anyone in the room questioned their desire to practice law in a firm setting. Two women raised their hands. The legal profession, it seems, faces a systemic problem with diversity, and while firms and the demands of legal practice may exacerbate the problem at times, they're really already working with a stacked deck: there aren't enough minorities and women in law schools. In California, this may be less of a problem, I don't know. But in the Northeast, it's for real. I talked with the black woman in attendance after the lunch as we both exited. She said that even though her whole family was from the city, she would rather practice in DC, where she was going to school, or possibly New York or Atlanta, where she felt there was already a community of black lawyers from which she could draw support.

I don't know where this post is going exactly. I want to somehow engage the topic of diversity in law and law school without setting off a political debate over affirmative action. There is certainly a place for such a debate, but often I think it obscures as much as it illuminates in terms of lighting the way to more diverse legal community. So instead I'll shout the question into the wind (or the blogosphere, whatever): what can we do to open our legal community, to ensure that people from different backgrounds not only have the opportunity to join, but also the desire? How can we nurture the feeling in all potential lawyers that there is in fact a place for all in the law?