National Jurist - March 2009 - (Page 24) when it comes to future planning. It also presents the public and potential students with a more realistic face of those who now teach and attend law school. “The days of Prof. Kingsfields dominating the law schools are long gone,” said Johnson, referring to the cruel Caucasian character from the infamous book and movie about law school, The Paper Chase. “Having role models on the law faculty from all different backgrounds as their teacher better prepares the students for the practice of law in an increasingly diverse society,” Johnson said. “By seeing a diverse faculty on a regular basis throughout the curriculum, students of color learn that it is possible for them to be lawyers and possibly law professors. Role models who ‘look like them’ make all the difference.” Students interested in how many minority professors teach at a particular law school have multiple resources available to them. One of the most complete may be Judging the Law School, an annual report produced by Thomas M. Cooley Law School. According to the report, Judging the Law Schools compares all accredited law schools based on a wide variety of objective criteria. These criteria are from the American Bar Association’s Council of the Section on Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, the organization that handles law school accrediting. Now in its 10th year, the report ranks law schools by the number of minorities on the teaching staff. The number is significant — and should be considered by prospective law school students — because it “reflects access to the highest levels of the legal profession,” the report stated. The latest edition, released in January 2009, ranks the University of Puerto Rico as having the most minority faculty: 102 people. International American University is second with 70 and the Pontifical Catholic University of P.R. as third with 51. (By comparison, UC Davis is listed as having 21 minorities on its faculty.) Howard University ranks high on this list (No. 6) and many others for a simple reason — its commitment to diversity permeates every part of the law school, said Okianer Christian Dark, a professor and the associate dean for academic affairs. “We always had a non-discrimination policy since our founding in 1869. That is only a few years after the Civil War ended,” Dark noted. “It’s built into our institutional fabric.” Role models While most of Howard’s faculty is African American, Dark said they also have professors who are Asian and Caucasian. In fact, the law school is now looking for additional legal writing professors, and they are working hard to find male candidates to balance how many females are already in place. “Sometimes you have to look for the missing voices,” Dark said. “We have to push a little more to see those ethnic or racial or gender differences are represented.” Dark knows of which she speaks — Dark was the first African-American female to teach at the University of Richmond law school in 1984. She said every minority hire knew where the others were and sought each other out for advice. “If you really want to attract people, you need to let them know they’re welcome,” Dark said. “It took a real sincerity (on Richmond’s part) for me to take the job. I was interviewing them as much as they were me. Were they for real? Would I be supported? Would I be a true member of the faculty? I wanted to know that they understood what I would bring to the table.” She recommends that law schools reach out to minority bar associations and the like to recruit future faculty members. Dean Linda Ammons has been head of Widener University School of Law for three years now. She proudly reports that minority recruitment at the two-campus law school has increased by 55 percent thanks to the addition of five new hires during her tenure. Widener has locations in Wilmington, Del., and Harrisburg, Penn. Granted, it helps that Ammons is the first woman and the first African American to lead the Widener University School of Law, and one of only three African American females in the nation serving as dean of a law school. “The mere fact that I am a person of color is not taken for granted. It sends a pretty powerful message,” Ammons admits. Indeed, her own life has been positively affected because she saw diverse role models within the law school environment. Ammons said she still remembers as a law school student how she met Marilyn V. Yarbrough, the first African American dean “When you look at the world, it is not one gender, one race, one anything. To me, it’s a no-brainer. It is part of the 21st Century, the way the world is flattening. It is essential to the way we reach across borders.“ — Linda Ammons, dean of Widener University School of Law “Having role models on the law faculty from all different backgrounds as a teacher, better prepares the students for the practice of law in an increasingly diverse society. “ — Kevin Johnson, dean of UC-Davis School of Law “We have to push a little more to see those ethnic or racial or gender differences are represented.” — Okianer Christian Dark, associate dean for academic affairs at Howard University School of Law 24 THE NATIONAL JURIST March 2009
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