Legal Diversity Initiatives

by Jared Solovay
Director of Employer Relations and Administrative Director of the Honors Lawyering Program
Law Career Services

A longstanding issue of great concern in the legal profession has been the lack of diversity with respect to women, persons with disabilities, the LGBT community, and racial and ethnic minorities.¹

The result has been disproportionately lower representation for certain groups in the profession, particularly in leadership positions.

For example, according to a recent Law Review article analyzing this topic, “12.6% of the U.S. population was African American, 16.3% was Hispanic American, and 4.8% was Asian American” in 2010, yet these groups made up only “4.3%, 3.4%, and 3.4% respectively” of the legal profession that year.

As the ABA has noted, “Without a diverse bench and bar, the rule of law is weakened as the people see and come to distrust their exclusion from the mechanisms of justice. “ In addition, as some diverse attorneys have explained, this underrepresention can lead to a lack of adequate mentorship and the perceptions of hiring biases within the profession.



While this situation is incapable of any one quick fix, attorneys have increasingly engaged in efforts to mitigate its effects, and the Bay Area is no exception. The Bar Association of San Francisco has various diversity initiatives, including the annual Bay Area Diversity Career Fair. Several local bar associations co-sponsor the Bay Area Minority Summer Clerkship Program. The Queens Bench Bar Association has a formal mentorship program for women who are newer to the profession. Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom oversees a mentorship program for LGBT law students. And San Francisco-based law firm Hanson Bridgett LLP presents an annual Interview Skills Workshop for diverse 1Ls.

Another such event is the Bay Area Legal Recruitment Association’s annual Speed Networking Event, which will be held on Wednesday, April 8, 2015, from 6:00pm to 8:00pm ​at ​UC Hastings College of the Law. The event is aimed at connecting law firm and in-house attorneys with diverse 1Ls (which BALRA defines as students “who contribute to the diversity of the legal profession, e.g., racial, religious, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or socio-economic”), combining a traditional hour of mingling with a fast-paced hour of timed conversations (think Speed Dating but for networking). Some of the connections formed at this event have led to lasting mentorships and even job opportunities. A limited number of 1Ls from each Bay Area law school can attend, so interested GGU students should be on the lookout for sign-up instructions in Law School News and This Week at LCS.

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¹As noted in a recently-published ABA Diversity Plan, the ABA Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity defines “minority” as “racially and ethnically diverse law students and lawyers (e.g. those persons of African, Hispanic, Asian, Pacific Islander, or Native American ancestry).” Others argue that the term “minority” is offensive and/or obsolete given current demographic trends.