LAWYERS FOR ONE AMERICA

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Conference of Chief Justices, National Center for State Courts | State of Indiana Supreme Court | United States District Court, Northern District of Illinois

Conference of Chief Justices, National Center for State Courts
Resolution 25 In Support of the Mission of Lawyers For One America
Unanimously adopted as proposed by the Access to Justice and Fairness in the Courts Committee of the Conference of Chief Justices in Austin, Texas, at the 23rd Midyear Meeting on February 2, 2000.

Whereas, the Conference of Chief Justices of State Supreme Courts have a long history of supporting efforts in the legal profession to strengthen our commitment to equal justice and diversity; and

Whereas, Lawyers For One America is a collaboration of lawyers and organizations in the legal profession committed to working together to ensure both that the legal profession reflects the diversity of the society we serve and that the profession provides full service to communities of color so that those communities can enjoy equal access to our system of justice; and

Whereas, the collaboration currently consists of senior officers and representatives from the American Bar Association, the American Corporate Counsel Association, the Association of American Law Schools, the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, the Columbus Bar Association, the Bar Association of San Francisco, the Hispanic National Bar Association, the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association, the National Bar Association, the Native American Bar Association, the Pro Bono Institute, and other prominent lawyers from law firms, corporations, bar associations, civil rights organizations, and law schools; and

Whereas, the collaboration developed out of a challenge to the legal profession made by President William J. Clinton at a White House event on July 20, 1999 to renew the legal profession's commitment to civil rights that grew out of the call to action made by President John F. Kennedy in the summer of 1963; and

Whereas, participants in the collaboration made a commitment to seek to encourage pro bono activities to end discrimination, to provide economic opportunities to individuals, communities and entrepreneurs of color, and to seek to promote diversity in the legal profession; and

Whereas, to achieve the mission, Lawyers For One America will:

Collect and magnify the work of the lawyers and legal organizations participating in this effort so that their coordinated efforts may be of exponential value and their stakeholders more informed and united in this effort.
Identify the leaders of the legal community who are not yet pursuing the goals of Lawyers For One America and obtain their commitment to take action in furtherance of those goals.
Seek more active involvement from all sectors of the legal community by developing avenues of participation for our efforts that are targeted to draw from their strengths.
Survey, collect and disseminate information about best practices for enhancing diversity and pro bono work from the individuals and organizations that are making a difference and develop means that will allow other organizations to adopt those practices.
Provide the means by which all stakeholders in the legal profession-lawyers, law schools, law firms, corporate employers of lawyers, government lawyers, bar associations, public interest organizations and others in the legal community-can work together to actively pursue equal justice and diversity.

Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Conference of Chief Justices of the State Supreme Courts:

Commends the organizations that are participating in the Lawyers For One America collaboration for their efforts to end discrimination against people of color and to promote diversity in all segments of the legal profession;
Urges all segments of the legal profession throughout the United States to support the mission and efforts of the Lawyers For One America collaboration to end discrimination against people of color and promote diversity; and
Urges its members to encourage all segments of the legal profession in their states to work with and support the mission of the Lawyers For One America collaboration.

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State of Indiana Supreme Court
Indiana Conference for Legal Education Opportunity (CLEO)
The Indiana Conference for Legal Education Opportunity was established to assist Indiana minority, low-income or educationally disadvantaged college graduates in pursuing a law degree and a career in the Indiana legal and professional community. Judiciary Code 33-2.1-12-2

In the Spring of 1997, with federal funding cutbacks being threatened for the highly successful national Conference for Legal Education Opportunity program, Chief Justice Randall T. Shepard urged the State of Indiana to launch an ambitious effort to increase the number of minority, low-income, and educationally disadvantaged students in Indiana's law schools. The Indiana Conference for Legal Education Opportunity was patterned after the well-known national program. Indiana's program takes approximately 30 college graduates who have applied to any of the State's four law schools, and exposes them to a six-week Summer Institute immediately before they begin law school. The Institute is conducted at an Indiana law school to prepare students for the special nature of legal study. Successful completion of the Summer Institute qualifies students for an annual stipend of $5,000 to assist them in completing their legal education in an Indiana law school.

At the Institute, students are introduced to the areas of law that they will study during their first year of law school. Law school professors are the primary instructors, and offer both traditional classroom instruction and tips for success in law school. This mixture of challenging scholastics and practical advice prepares Indiana CLEO Fellows for the rigors of their upcoming law school experience.

The Indiana CLEO program provides a wide variety of services to help its Fellows succeed in law school and thereafter. Indiana CLEO has an aggressive jobs program, which assists law students in locating rewarding employment both during and after law school. Special activities designed to enhance the students' knowledge of the court system are arranged each year. Some Indiana CLEO Fellows have been matched with practicing lawyers in a successful mentoring program. The Chief Justice also hosts an annual Indiana CLEO dinner to coincide with the "State of the Judiciary" speech to the Indiana General Assembly. There are currently 80 CLEO Fellows in Indiana's law schools. The legislature has increased the Indiana CLEO appropriation to $625,000 a year, enabling us to expand our efforts at recruiting more minority law students, helping them succeed in school, and assisting them in passing the Bar and gaining employment.

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"Nothing rankles more in the human heart than a brooding sense of injustice."

Justice William Brennan

United States District Court, Northern District of Illinois
While the number of minority judicial clerks nationwide in the last five years has increased from 388 to 509, the overall number of clerkships has also risen. As a result, minority representation in clerkships has gone up only from 13 percent to 15 percent. Yet minorities comprise 30 percent of the U.S. population, and 20 percent of the law student population.

Minority law students will get a chance to learn the workings of the federal court under a pilot program this summer at the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. In conjunction with the ABA Section of Antitrust Law's Special Committee on Minority Clerkships, federal judges in Chicago are providing for up to six minority law students to work in their chambers during an eight-week summer program. Each student will receive a $1,500 stipend, as well as invaluable exposure to the judicial system.

Five District Court judges have volunteered to host a student, as have nine magistrate judges of the District Court, and one U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge. The students will interview with members of the Section, who will recommend candidates to the judges. Interested judges will then interview candidates to see if they would fit into their staffs as assistants. Because so many judges have offered to participate in the program, additional funds are being sought to support more students.

Called externs, the first- and second-year law students will assist a judge's law clerks in some opinion writing, while observing and taking part in the daily operations of chambers and courtroom. At the end of the year, students and judges will evaluate the program. Students will be asked if they are likely to apply for a clerkship, and the ABA will keep track of them to see if they apply for or receive judicial clerkships, which is often a door to success in the field of law.

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