Plugging the Diversity Leak and Strengthening the Legal Profession: Examining the Importance of Targeting Underrepresented Minorities on the Educational Pipeline to Law
2017; RELX Group (Netherlands); Linguagem: Inglês
10.2139/ssrn.2943191
ISSN1556-5068
Autores Tópico(s)Legal Cases and Commentary
ResumoAt first glance, the legal profession appears to be thriving with diversity. Three women, including one Hispanic woman, and one African American man currently serve on the United States Supreme Court. The country’s first African American president recently left office, taking with him the country’s first African American woman to hold the office of attorney general. This appearance of diversity is not particularly new — Presidents Barack Obama, Bill Clinton,and George W. Bush all had progressively more racially and ethnically diverse cabinet picks compared to their predecessors. The illusion of diversity persists even outside of politics and government, in the entertainment world, going back over 30 years with the likes of attorney Claire Huxtable in The Cosby Show and later Judge Phillip Banks, more commonly known as Uncle Phil on The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Today, Emmy, Tony, and Oscar winner Viola Davis personifies a highly revered attorney and academic on How to Get Away with Murder and millions tune in weekly to watch attorney Olivia Pope balance a successful law firm and political career in Scandal. LGBT individuals, gay men in particular, also see greater representation as attorneys on television. Yet law is one of the least diverse professions in the United States. The vast majority of attorneys — 88% to be exact — are white and white males hold a majority of all high-ranking, prestigious positions.
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