This guidance provides a roadmap for addressing the goals and challenges that legal educators may face when establishing or expanding programs to increase pathways for more underrepresented students to enter the legal profession (referred to herein as “Pathway Programs”).
It is based on the experience and best practices of the ABA Pipeline Council Members, Staff, and Liaisons. It also is based on the insight and experiences of education professionals throughout the country, and in particular the faculty and staff of the Indiana University McKinney School of Law for their creation and implementation of their ABA grant-supported Pathway Program (“McKinney Program”). The McKinney Program utilized an online format with a four-course sequence offered at Indiana University over four semesters starting in the sophomore spring semester and ending in the senior fall semester. The four courses included: Introduction to Law, Introduction to Critical Thinking, Philosophy of Law, and Legal Writing. The program also included a robust mentoring component and networking opportunities with members of the legal profession. While not all of those components are needed for law schools to establish a program beneficial to students and their communities, this toolkit will follow the outline of the McKinney Program.
Although there will be a wide variety of unique conditions and variables that will lead to different types of pathway programs and accompanying goals, a set of primary best practices has emerged among many law school pathway programs.
These can be summarized as follows:
- Pathway Programs should endeavor to provide both pedagogically robust and accountable courses that can be taught in person, online, or in a hybrid format with another institution or organization that wishes to offer the courses.
- Pathway Programs have facilitated the development of relationships among the law school and feeder programs, including relationships among program leadership and (1) academic counselors, (2) school leadership, and (3) teaching faculty at feeder programs.
- Pathway Programs should be open to all students with the goal of developing a cohort of undergraduate students drawn from diverse backgrounds with a commitment to the growth of a diverse and inclusive law school and legal profession.
- Pathway Programs should endeavor to connect dozens of diverse undergraduates with two mentors—one a law student, one a lawyer—producing mentorship relationships that are commonly cited as one of the program’s primary benefits.
- Pathway Programs can experience synergies with undergraduate law-related programs at law schools that are part of a university. It is important to note, however, that the lack of a university should not deter stand-alone or independent programs from flourishing.
- Pathway Programs can become a pillar of the Law School’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
- The Pathway Program can bring diverse undergraduates to the Law School for recruitment efforts and hospitality events.
- The Pathway Program can enroll dozens of diverse undergraduates who can experience their first success in the legal profession.