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effort to give students more hands-on experience before entering the real world. The clinics—in fair housing, invest- ments, investor justice, and trademarks— are supervised by faculty and are designed to give graduates an advantage in a highly competitive marketplace, says Okianer Christian Dark, interim dean of Howard University’s law school.
T
T e University of the District of Columbia’s David A. Clarke School of Law, another historically black institution with a strong public service legal tradition, is enrolling an increasing number of part-time students as it adjusts to the fi nancial realities of its students. “T ere was a big switch with more students opting for
the part-time program just for fi nancial reasons. [Students] would rather take four years and work instead of amassing more debt,” says Dean Shelley Broderick, noting that the class admitted last year was roughly split between full- and part-time students. T e year before, 80 fulltime and 49 part-time students enrolled; the year before that the split was 90 to 34. T e changes at Howard and UDC are among many the
nation’s approximately 200 accredited law schools are hav- ing to make because of turmoil in the legal profession. And along with these changes come questions about what that could mean for minority enrollment. T e legal profession is shrinking rapidly. By some
estimates, there is one job for every two newly minted law school graduates. Blue chip law fi rms, once seen as the gold standard for success in the practice of law and a
DIVERSITY & THE BAR® MAY/JUNE 2013
he Howard University School of Law has signifi cantly expanded its
number of legal clinics as par t of an
pipeline to the upper middle class, are increasingly laying off lawyers, reducing the number of associates and in many cases demoting partners, in eff ect changing their status as shareholders. Some disgruntled recent law school graduates, bur-
dened by huge debts of as much as $100,000 and frus- trated by their inability to fi nd jobs, have sued their alma maters, charging that law schools misled them by infl ating their job prospects with inaccurate job-placement data on recent graduates. T is public relations black eye coupled with dim job
prospects has sent law school applications plunging. T e Law School Admission Council, which administers the Law School Admission Test, reports that the nation’s law schools project only 54,000 applications for fall 2013. T at’s nearly half of the applications from just a few years ago. Stung by these pesky allegations, the lawsuits and the
rapid changes in the legal profession, many law schools have been adjusting their business models. Some, like Howard and UDC, are tweaking their curriculum and touting their strengths as institutions with a strong focus on public service and as places that ensure that their graduates can go directly from the classroom to the courtroom. Many others are adjusting to the market changes. Barry
Currier, who oversees the accreditation process for the America Bar Association, has identifi ed clear trends among the nation’s law schools. He says many have reduced enroll- ment while some have introduced loan forgiveness programs for new graduates who seek work in the public sector. Many have stepped up eff orts to help graduating students fi nd work, he adds. T ere’s no evidence that the sharp drop in law school
numbers has hit minorities disproportionately hard—yet. “T ere hasn’t been any disproportionate reduction” in
the percentage of minorities and women enrolled in law school, Currier says, noting that the demographic break- down for Fall 2012 enrollment had yet to be released. “T at’s my impression. But it’s an informed impression.” Alison Monahan, a lawyer, writer, and commentator on the
legal profession and proprietor of
girlsguidetolawschool.com, says that while it’s too early to determine what impact these changes will have on minority enrollment, she’s certain it will have some eff ect on diversity. “Who can aff ord these schools? It’s defi nitely the
upper-class white guys,” says Monahan, a 2006 graduate of Columbia University’s law school. “I can see some [women and minorities] say this is a risky decision. T ey might look at the fact that they might not fi t in or they will be in debt when they are done.” Even before the current crisis, many leaders of minority bar associations had been clamoring to improve diversity in
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