Diversity Pipeline
At Locke Lord, we are all too aware that the number of diverse students entering and remaining in the legal profession is insufficient to serve clients’ legal needs and appropriately advance the profession. To that end, we are involved in a number of initiatives designed to encourage and support diverse students interested in pursuing a legal career.
- In 1998, we established the Rod Sands Diversity Scholarship at the University of Texas School of Law to provide financial aid to minority and economically disadvantaged students in memory of our friend and partner, Rod Sands.
- Organizations with which we work to diversify the pipeline include the Hispanic Lawyers Association of Illinois, its sister organization, the Hispanic Lawyers Scholarship Fund and the Houston Bar Association’s Subcommittee on Minority Opportunities Program.
- In addition, every summer, we employ several University of Illinois Law Minority Access Program (LawMAP) participants. LawMAP is a competitive program in which academically talented diverse undergraduate students interested in the law earn the opportunity to experience firsthand what the practice of law entails.
- We also participate in a local high school pipeline initiative through which we employ a diverse student from a Chicago school for the entire academic year.
- Our Atlanta office also employs two interns who have a demonstrated interest in pursuing a legal career. Each student is a junior or senior attending either Morehouse or Spelman Colleges.
- Last, we have most recently become partners with a renowned Chicago scholarship organization for high school students and have worked with them to select the class of 2012 scholars. Several of the Firm’s attorneys also act as mentors to the selected scholars.
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