IF MEMBERS OF THE LEGAL PROFESSION ARE SERIOUS ABOUT BOOSTING THE NUMBER OF MINORITY LAWYERS IN ITS RANKS, they need to start early, says
Sonya Sanchez ’06, an associate at Farella Braun + Martel in San Francisco. • “There are leaks in the education pipeline that mean fewer underrepresented minorities at each level of education,” she says. “It gets worse as you go further along.” According to the American Bar Association, minorities account for only 9.7 percent of lawyers in the United States, even though they make up 24.9 percent of the population. • With this sobering data in mind Sanchez launched the Farella Braun + Martel High School Law Clerk Program, held over six weeks during the summer, that offers five minority students from the San Francisco Unified School District a chance to explore working in the law. The program aims “to encourage them to think that they’re capable of going to law school,” says Sanchez. It combines paid work—completing administrative tasks in the paralegal, library, and recruiting departments—with educational opportunities that include Friday lunch meetings with firm attorneys to discuss practice areas and interesting cases; college application seminars; and a financial aid workshop for students and parents.