Legal Maneuvering - Statistical Data Included

Law schools struggle to produce despite affirmative action bans

Years ago, law schools did not so much recruit applicants as wait for them to apply, and then pick the best and the brightest. However, a ban on affirmative action policies and a decline in the overall applications and enrollment of potential law students has changed the recruitment efforts of law schools across the country.

The ban against affirmative action was felt immediately at the University of California-Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law. After California voter initiative Proposition 209 passed, 14 African Americans were admitted to the school in 1997. All opted not to attend the school. The one African American student who did attend that year was admitted in 1996, but postponed his enrollment. At the beginning of the fall semester, Eric Brooks was greeted by a barrage of reporters and television cameras, and was forced to hold a press conference.

In previous years, Boalt Hall officials had prided themselves on having an enrollment that reflected the diverse population of California. In 1996, before the ban on affirmative action was imposed, 34 percent of the first-year class was composed of people of color -- 14 percent Asian, 8 percent African American, 11 percent Hispanic, and 2 percent Native American. After the ban, 20 percent of the class members were minorities -- 14 percent Asian, 5 percent Hispanic, with just one African American and no Native Americans.

If the California law schools were no longer allowed to consider race, then officials at Boalt Hall decided to change the way they do business in the hopes of bolstering minority enrollment.

"We believe that it is really essential to a good legal education to study with people who represent a cross- section of American society," says Assistant Dean Luguana Treadwell. "It's been a very difficult time for the school -- making the improvements and continuing to look for ways to increase minority enrollment [without violating the ban]."

One of the methods the school used was a change in the personal essay statement, increasing its length. Officials intensified recruitment of minorities by visiting more historically Black colleges than in the past. The school also enlisted the help of minority alumni who hosted parties for possible students.

Additionally, once minority applicants were accepted, the school campaigned to have them commit to attending Berkeley. Once accepted, minority students were invited to a daylong orientation at the school, which included dinner with the first Black mayor of Berkeley, Warren Widener, who is also an alumnus of the law school.

As of last year, those extra efforts appeared to have paid off. The first-year class was 30 percent minority -- 18 percent Asian, 3 percent African American, 23 percent Hispanic, and 2 percent Native American.

"We are under heavy scrutiny by politicians of every stripe and that makes life a little more difficult," Treadwell says. "We're operating in a fishbowl, but we are generally pleased with the improvements we've been able to make."

Financing and Leveling

California's experiences were echoed in Texas as law schools were forced to ban the use of racial and gender consideration in their admission policies following the 5th U.S. Circuit Court's Hopwood ruling.

After experiencing a decline in minority enrollment, Texas law schools have also tried new ways to recruit minorities. The boldest effort underway, is a $100 million grant approved by the state legislature in May. "Toward Excellence, Access, and Success" -- the name of the grant program -- is, according to The Dallas Morning News, the largest one-time allotment of scholarship money by the Texas Legislature.

The grant is based solely on financial need and gives students $2,500 for tuition and fees at any college or university in the state of Texas -- and it does not have to be repaid.

At the Thurgood Marshall School of Law in Houston, applications have increased, but that school has made a practice of accepting students that other law schools would typically reject. Additionally, it is a state school and receives more applications than private institutions.

The bans on affirmative action in California, Texas, and Washington state have had an odd impact on Howard University's Law School, the nation's only nationally-ranked predominately Black law school.

"It's had an affect on Howard, but it has not had the affect the general public assumes," says Ruby Shaerrod, assistant dean for admissions and financial aid. "Students are not knocking down the door. It's giving Howard more competition."

Shaerrod says she believes that the loss of racial- and gender-sensitive admissions in states like California and Texas has caused law schools -- which in the past felt they were unable to recruit minority students because they were unable to offer scholarships and financial aid -- to increase their efforts.

"Now you have 180 law schools competing for those students. It has leveled the playing field."

That means that Howard, once the only game in town for African American students, is spending more time on the road attending forums and law school fairs.

Competition and Attrition

Yet, bans on affirmative action programs are not the only reason for the decline in minority enrollment. Students are less inclined to apply for law school opting instead for areas of postgraduate studies such as computer sciences. During the 1993-94 academic year, 63,990 White students applied to law school. By the 1997-98 academic year, only 46,170 White students applied.

Minority applicants have declined as well. In the 1993-94 academic year, 9,969 African American students applied for law school, 5,435 Asians, 1,543 Mexican Americans, 2,974 Hispanics, and 1,733 Puerto Ricans. And Native Americans were responsible for just 0.8 percent of that year's enrollment. By the 1997-98, academic year, 8,216 African Americans applied to law school, 4,942 Asians, 1,523 Mexican Americans, 2,683 Hispanics, and 1,870 Puerto Ricans. The percentage of Native Americans applicants remained the same.

Coupled with declining enrollment numbers, there is still the nagging problem of dropouts. Last year, the attrition rate for all minority law students was 6.2 percent. Officials with the National Bar Institute, the philanthropic arm of the National Bar Association, say that African American students are more likely to leave law school because of financial reasons than academic failure. To that end, the association has created a scholarship fund for three third-year law students, with awards ranging from $1,000 to $10,000, depending on the availability of funds.

"We found from our investigation that there is a great need when they reached the third year," says Ernestine Sapp, the outgoing chair of the scholarship fund. "We found that a lot of Black students need help to finish, once they are already enrolled. A lot of times, once they are enrolled, they have so much debt that they just cannot meet their needs. We offer them help to make it through that last year."

Lizzy Diaz-Ortiz, a recent graduate of Illinois Institute of Technology's Kent College of Lawent, also says that it's law schools need to offer more money and support to minority law students. But he also notes that Kent College has no Hispanic Law professors on staff.

"It is better if you have someone you can identify with," says Diaz-Ortiz, president of the Hispanic National Bar Association Law Student Division. "Having that kind of support and representation who has gone though this before would have really helped."

Selecting the Right School

Yet, while law schools are all vying for the best and the brightest and white-shoe law firm want to hire Ivy League graduates, many lawyers and educators say that it is unwise for minorities to buy into that philosophy. Ultimately, enrollment at the best law schools, the best clerkships, the best law firms are still reserved for Whites.

"Regardless of where you go to school or where you land a job, you are still Black in the end," says Cara Grayer, who is entering her third year at American University's law school in Washington, D.C. "I think we are grossly underrepresented, and you can see that when you look at the numbers of us passing the bar or the number of summer associates at law firms."

Grayer's father attended Howard University's law school and has a thriving family law practice. On the other hand, she has another relative who attended Harvard Law School, is an associate in a major law firm, and is very unhappy.

When selecting a law school she opted for one where she would succeed and have an opportunity to land on the Law Journal, which would enhance her chances of competing for the prestigious internships and clerkships.

"Black students need to choose the law schools that best suit their needs," Grayer says. "Going to the best [Ivy League] law school doesn't necessarily guarantee that you will make a lot of money or that you will have a job in five years."

LADY LAWYERS

In the 1996-97 academic year, only five of the 54 law schools appearing in the Black Issues ranking -- Columbia University, Loyola Marymount University, University of Illinois-Urbana, Syracuse University, and Vanderbilt University -- graduated more Black men than women.

Only five law schools -- Columbia University, Loyola Marymount, University of Illinois-Urbana, Syracuse University, and Vanderbilt University -- graduated more Black men than Black women.

COPYRIGHT 1999 Cox, Matthews & Associates
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group