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54 Tex. Tech L. Rev. 89 (2021-2022)
Black Lives Matter: On Challenging the Soul of Legal Education

handle is hein.journals/text54 and id is 109 raw text is: BLACK LIVES MATTER: ON CHALLENGING THE SOUL OF LEGAL EDUCATION Phil Lord* In 2020, the Black Lives Matter movement moved to the fore. Many Americans understood for the first time that racism persists in countless aspects of American society and that the legacy of our past is deep and structural. The legal academy, and higher education more broadly, responded by hiring more racialized scholars and making curricular changes. While I salute this effort, I argue that law schools chose to take the easiest path, instead of seizing the opportunity to question, and challenge, the structure and nature of legal education. I consider the structural characteristics of legal education that contribute to the exclusion of racialized and historically marginalized groups. I conclude that meaningfully advancing equity in our law schools, and responding to the Black Lives Matter movement, will remain hindered by the structure and nature of legal education its soul. To truly challenge the legacy of racism, we will need to challenge the soul of legal education. I. IN TR O D U CTIO N ................................................................................. 89 II. 2020 IN C ON TEX T ............................................................................. 9 1 A. Black Lives Matter Comes to the Fore.......................................91 B. Diversity and Equity in the Legal Profession ............................ 94 III. LAW SCHOOLS RESPOND TO THE BLACK LIVES MATTER MOVEMENT......................................................................................... 101 IV. THE STRUCTURE AND NATURE (SOUL) OF LEGAL EDUCATION ..... 103 V . C O N C L U SIO N ...................................................................................... 1 13 I. INTRODUCTION 2020 was a momentous year. It saw the tensions which have always defined American society laid bare, taken on, grappled with. 2020 acted as a reminder of how far we have come, and of how much still lies ahead. It reminded us that progress, however we conceive of it, is neither easy nor linear, and that we will always carry the burden of our past as we move * Assistant Professor, Bora Laskin Faculty of Law, Lakehead University. J.D. (McGill, Dean's List), B.C.L. (McGill, Dean's List), LL.M. (McGill), FCIArb. I wish to acknowledge my privileged position. As a cisgender settler male with a disability, I have benefitted from the structures I criticize in this piece. I am grateful to Carleton University for generous financial support. I am particularly grateful to Talia Karam, a Bachelor of Public Affairs and Policy Management candidate at Carleton University, whose research greatly assisted me in writing this Article. 89

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