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16 Tex. Wesleyan L. Rev. 577 (2009-2010)
Recreating the Law School to Increase Minority Participation: The Conceptual Law School

handle is hein.journals/twlr16 and id is 587 raw text is: RECREATING THE LAW SCHOOL TO INCREASE MINORITY PARTICIPATION: THE CONCEPTUAL LAW SCHOOL By Patricia A. Wilson By now, there is more than enough evidence that minorities are sig- nificantly under-represented in the legal profession. According to the 2000 United States census, total minority representation in the legal profession is approximately 9.7%, notwithstanding that those same statistics indicate that nearly 25% of the population is non-white.1 Al- though Blacks/African-Americans make up 12.3% of the total popula- tion, they comprise only 3.9% of the legal profession. Hispanics comprise 12.5% of the total United States population but make up only 3.3% of the legal profession.2 Moreover, there is general consensus that increasing the racial and ethnic diversity of the bar is something to aspire to for any number of reasons. Indeed, there are many stakeholders who stand to benefit by increasing the diversity of the bar. Law firms, looking to acquire busi- ness from clients in the global marketplace, fully recognize that a mostly white, mostly male firm puts them at a distinct disadvantage. Clients, for their own personal and business reasons, seek to have rep- resentation by attorneys whose diverse backgrounds and experience are more likely to result in the best representation. Diversity in the bar serves to guard against injustice in general or, to state it slightly differently, to be a necessary component to making justice for all a reality. No doubt there exist a substantial number of ethnically, racially, and culturally diverse individuals who are capable of completing a quality program for legal education. They have the intelligence to master the law. Moreover, there are likely a significant number of prospective attorneys who have the ambition to complete a rigorous program of legal education, become licensed, and practice the law competently and ethically. 1. U.S. DEP'T. OF COMMERCE ECONS. AND STATISTICS ADMIN., U.S. CENSUS Bu- REAU, CENSUS 2000 BRIEF: OVERVIEW OF RACE AND HISPANIC ORIGIN 3, available at http://www.census.gov/prod/2001pubs/c2kbrOl-1.pdf. In fact, minority representation among other professionals is significantly better than that in the legal profession. For example, minority representation in the accounting profession is 20.8%; with respect to physicians, 24.5%; and among college and university professors, 18.2%. See COMM'N ON RACIAL AND ETHNIC DIVERSITY IN THE PROFESSION, AM. BAR ASS'N, EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: MILES TO GO 2000: THE PROGRESS OF MINORITIES IN THE LEGAL PROFESSION, available at http://www.abanet.org/minorities/publications/ milesummary.html. 2. COMM'N ON RACIAL AND ETHNIC DIVERSITY IN THE PROFESSION, AM. BAR AsS'N, STATISTICS ABOUT MINORITIES IN THE PROFESSION FROM THE CENSUS, http:// www.abanet.org/minorities/links/2000census.html (last visited Feb. 20, 2010).

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