Blank Title

RECRUIT DIVERSITY™
for the recruitment of diversity candidates.

COMING SOON......Re-Launch of our Online Job Board!!
In the meantime, please sign up below for information on our Recruit Diversity (tm) employment services.
If you are a job seeker, we can assist you with your job search. If you're an employer, we can assist you with reaching to diverse candidates for your company. Use the contact form below to contact us with your inquiries.

How Diversity Makes Us BetterBeing around people who are different from us makes us more creative, more diligent and harder-working

Diversity Expert Talks Career, Law School Considerations for MinoritiesMinority lawyers and law students should network through organizations that serve their interests.
By Delece Smith-BarrowDec. 8, 2015, at 8:30 a.m.+ More
The law market isn't an easy one to break into. In the last few years, it's been especially challenging to get a job at a well-paying firm as a new J.D. grad, and minority lawyers often struggle more than others to do this.

The percentage of African-American associates at major U.S. law firms has declined each year since 2009, according to a November report from the National Association for Law Placement. It now sits at 3.95 percent.

Minority women are the most underrepresented group at the partner level – just 2.6 percent in 2015. Hispanic law associates have slightly increased from 4 percent in 2013 to 4.3 percent in 2015. Asians represent nearly 11 percent of associates at major U.S. firms.

[Follow these tips for applying to law school as a minority applicant.]

"We kid ourselves if we don't understand that the implicit and unconscious biases have an impact on peoples' lives and careers. They do," says Joseph K. West, president and CEO of the Minority Corporate Counsel Association. The association advocates for lawyers who are women, minorities or disabled, and lawyers who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. It also provides diversity training to all.

"We have funded research that shows that the work product, for example, of minority lawyers tends to be graded more harshly than the identical work product of Caucasian lawyers," says West, a graduate of theTulane University Law School. "And that bias exists even when the grader happens to be a minority."

Experts say minority law applicants can take certain steps to better ensure they'll have a promising legal career, no matter where they work. U.S. News spoke with West about what applicants of color can do to determine which school will best prepare them for the field.

An edited excerpt of the conversation is below.

How can applicants tell if the school they're considering is going to prepare them for the realities of what work may be like?

It helps if the law school that you're looking at has a very robust infrastructure to support the students and to support, particularly, diverse students and the needs that they have that are different and can be different from nondiverse students. That whole mentoring component is something that is critically important.

I think a lot of schools are starting to understand the value of practical courses, courses that really help prepare students for what the real world of practicing is going to be like. Whether it's in areas that are quickly growing and have a dearth of minorities, like compliance and intellectual property and transactional areas. Or if there is a litigation-based program.

I think the two most important factors in my opinion: one, a supportive, nurturing, mentoring environment and an infrastructure that provides that type of environment. And number two: Some courses that lend more towards the practical and that can supplement the academics.

[Find

Should you look into the career services department if this is a school you're considering?

I think that's critical. One of the really, sort of, fundamental changes in our profession over the last two years is that, whether it's real or perceived, there is the notion out there that there are far more lawyers than there are jobs available. And so it's a competitive market. And I think you would probably do yourself well to at least investigate the career services of any school that you're interested in going to.

Should minority law applicants aspire to work at a firm, in-house or for the government? Does it make a difference?

I think yes, as to whether or not you should have clearly defined aspirations, however, I think you should remain flexible and be willing to pursue opportunities where they present themselves.

Just about every lawyer I know, if you ask them to compare the career trajectory that they actually experience to the career trajectory that they had mapped out in their heads when they started law school, the two look almost nothing like each other. You certainly should have a game plan and you certainly should have some idea as to what you'd like to do and where you'd like to go. However, just about every career change that I've made was the result of an opportunity presenting itself to me that I hadn't anticipated and had no idea would come my way.

COMING SOON......Re-Launch of our Online Job Board!!
Be part of our email list. Please sign up below for information on our Recruit Diversity (tm) employment services and advertising and promotion services. If you are an employer, we can provide assistance with your recruitment of diversity candidates through advertising your job postings and other outreach services. Please fill out the form below or reach us at recruitdiversity2000@gmail.com.

Contact us below for more information on our services.