“This is the future of our association,” ABA President Bill Bay told an audience of law students, judges and clerks during the 25th anniversary of the ABA Judicial Clerkship Program at the Midyear Meeting in Phoenix.
The annual program, which this year brought together 70 law students from 17 law schools around the country, is sponsored by the ABA Council for Diversity in the Educational Pipeline and the ABA Judicial Division. The midyear meeting was held last Thursday to Monday.
The program connects law students from diverse backgrounds across the nation with judges and law clerks and educates students on the long-term benefits of judicial clerkships, offering a unique, hands-on experience over the course of three days. Participants engage in legal research and draft memoranda or briefs.
“It’s no secret that we need more fairness and diversity in the legal profession and justice system, on the bench and as judicial clerks,” Bay said, noting ABA Goal III, an objective adopted in 2008 to eliminate bias and enhance diversity in the association, the profession and the legal system.
“The ABA believes in excellence, and excellence demands diversity,” Bay said.
ABA President-elect Michelle Behnke and ABA Executive Director Alpha Brady delivered opening remarks to the participants.
Over the three-day program, which aims to educate law students on the long-term benefits of judicial clerkships, students participate in interactive panel discussions and hands-on workshops, meet with lawyers and judges, work on a research exercise, discuss how to improve their resumes and learn how to apply for judicial clerkships.
Participants heard oral arguments at the Arizona Supreme Court on Thursday.
Administrative Law Judge Ann Breen-Greco, a mentor and member of the Judicial Clerkship Program Committee for many years, said one of the most valuable aspects of the program is that the students begin to articulate legal theories.
“That’s not easy if you’re sitting at tables with judges and lawyers who’ve been practicing for a while.” Equally important, she said, is their “commitment, passion and seriousness” about the program. “The thing is to get these students involved at an early age at wanting to be judicial clerks.”
Several students commented on the value of the program.
“This dialogue between generations, between schools and states and backgrounds is essential to promoting a more equitable legal landscape in the long run,” said Dominic Bellido, a first-year law student at the University of Connecticut School of Law.
Michael Chambers Jr., in his first year at South Texas College of Law in Houston, said he hopes to incorporate the principles of inclusion and diversity and “getting different perspectives” into his work when he becomes a decision maker.
Other highlights include a variety of programming: “Clerking: A Bridge to Any Legal Career,” featuring judges and law clerks from the Arizona, Nevada and Minnesota courts; Justice Linda Bell of the Nevada Supreme Court will speak on the “Ethics of Clerking”; and U.S. District Court Judge Diane Humetewa of the District of Arizona will deliver the keynote address.
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