By Jo Mathis
Legal News
Nearly three dozen Detroit area high school students are spending their time this week at Detroit’s federal courthouse, getting a feel for the legal profession.
It’s the first time Detroit will offer the Summer Legal Institute (SLI) sponsored by Just The Beginning Foundation, a Chicago-based non-profit started by federal judges of color across the country.
Already held in five other American cities, the SLI gives high school students from inner city schools some exposure to the law so they know that a law career is an option for them.
“We need many more lawyers of color, and programs like this are a small piece in getting students thinking about it,” said John Nussbaumer, associate dean of the Thomas M. Cooley School of Law’s Auburn Hills campus. “We looked around and there are no pipeline programs for high school students in the Detroit area. There are one-day event type programs, but nothing more comprehensive to try to expose
students to the possibility that law might be an achievable goal for them.”
The legal profession now is about 11 percent people of color even as the general American population is becoming much more diverse, he said.
Nussbaumer decided to bring the program to Detroit the moment he heard about it during a program in Chicago aimed at increasing the number of minority students in law schools.
Nussbaumer returned to Detroit and talked to Judge Victoria Roberts, who liked the idea.
Held in conjunction with the Cooley Law School, the program offers students classroom lectures and activities, logic and critical thinking exercises, writing and oral advocacy in mock trial environments, panel discussions of judges and attorneys, and field trips to area law firms, corporations, government offices, and state and federal courthouses.
Paula Lucas, executive director of Just The Beginning Foundation is excited that the program is opening in Detroit because of the large percentage of African Americans here.
“The program is to encourage them to get on the path and figure out early on about what they want to do, and hopefully they’ll want to be attorneys,” she said. “We introduce them to lawyers and judges and others actually in the practice of law — and those in the support staff that helps law professionals to do what they do.”
Because it’s the pilot year, all applicants have been accepted into the program, said Lucas, noting that the program is open to current freshmen, sophomores and juniors who submitted an application, statement of interest, high school transcript, and letter of recommendation.
They were also interviewed over the phone.
“We’re excited about the partnership with Cooley Law School and grateful to Judge Roberts for making the federal courthouse available,” Lucas said.
The week will include field trips to the Miller Canfield and Dickinson Wright law firms, and to Oakland University, where the students and their parents will learn about the admissions and financial aid process.
The SLI is free to the students, and the program provides breakfast and lunch each day. A transportation stipend to cover travel expenses to and from the program is also provided.
Finances have stopped many minority students from applying to law school, but schools offer annual scholarships targeted at low income students regardless of race, Nussbaumer noted.
Nussbaumer said the week is a major development in the pipeline to law school for underrepresented students in metropolitan Detroit.
He said it will provide Cooley with a high school program that will eventually feed into a similar program for current college students.
“We’re doing this program not so much because it will benefit Cooley,” he said. “Students obviously have no obligation to go to Cooley. For Judge Roberts and I, the goal is to get these kids into college first, and then into law school — no matter what law school they go to.”
The financial sponsors are WalMart, Oakland University, Thomas M. Cooley Law School, the State Bar of Michigan Young Lawyers Section, the Federal Bar Association for the Eastern District of Michigan, and the Straker Bar Association.
The facility contributors are the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, which is providing the main venue for most events at the federal courthouse in downtown Detroit, and Dickinson Wright, Miller Canfield, and Oakland University, which are hosting major programs for the students during the week.
Nussbaumer hopes students come away from the week with a better understanding of the legal system and the opportunities exist in the legal profession and law-related professions such as the FBI and U.S. Marshall service, and the fact that there are many in the legal community ready to support their success in law school.
“There are lots of people in power who think improving the diversity of the profession is a real priority,” he said.
The program offers follow-up via mentoring as the kids get into their junior and senior years in high school.
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