The Atlanta Lawyer August/September 2012 | Page 21

m&dcp Consider Participating in the 2013 Minority and Diversity Clerkship Program By Charles T. Lester, Jr. Sutherland [email protected] A s law firms and corporate legal departments begin to make plans for 2013, please consider including the Minority and Diversity Clerkship Program of the Atlanta Bar Association. In 1985, then Atlanta Bar Association President, W. Seaborn Jones, established the Minority Clerkship Program based upon the premise that minorities continue to practice law outside the mainstream of the legal profession. The number of minority associates and partners in major law firms had not increased significantly over the past decades and Seaborn desired to address that trend. Since the program’s inception, the Atlanta Bar Association has sponsored the Minority Clerkship Program with the assistance and cooperation of the law schools at Emory University, University of Georgia, Georgia State University, Mercer University and John Marshall along with Atlanta law firms and corporate law departments. The goals of the Minority Clerkship Program are: • to increase the number of minorities practicing in Atlanta law firms, corporate law departments and public interest groups by facilitating the placement of minority law students in summer clerkships; • to supplement the minority students’ clerkship experiences with such support functions as skills development, other seminars, and networking sessions; and • to assist Atlanta law firms, corporate law departments, and public interest groups in their efforts to place minorities in clerkships and to increase the number of minority attorneys in practice in those and other law firms throughout metro Atlanta and the state. development of minority clerkship programs by other bar associations. Since its inception, almost 200 law students have served clerkships in over 25 Atlanta law firms and corporate law departments. Clerkships are for six to twelve weeks, depending on the employer’s preferences, and student participants receive the salary paid to other firstyear associates at the office where they intern. There is no distinction made between the clerk from the intern program and any other summer clerk; the only distinction is ensuring that work assignments are appropriate for a first year (as opposed to a second year) summer law clerk. Initially the program was designed for larger law firms and legal departments, but over the last several years medium size and small firms have participated as well. In 2012 the following firms hosted minority and diverse first year law students: Alston & Bird, Burr & Forman, Carlton Fields PA, Fellows LaBriola LLP, Fisher & Phillips, Ford & Harrison, Goodman, McGuffey Lindsey & Johnson LLP, Holland & Knight LLP, Hunton & Williams LLP, Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton, Morris Manning & Martin LLP, Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP, Owen Gleaton Egan Jones & Sweeney, Strickland, Brockington & Lewis LLP, Parker Hudson Rainer & Dobbs, Stites & Harbison, Thompson Hine and Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice PLLP. The Minority and Diversity Clerkship Program Committee, G. Wayne Hillis, W. Seaborn Jones, Charles T. Lester and Curtis J. Martin II, will be writing and calling law firms and corporate legal departments to secure commitments for participation in August, but you can sign up now by contacting Mariana Pannell at the Atlanta Bar Association, mpannell@ atlantabar.org or 404-537-4930. The Committee hopes to have participation by 25 to 30 law firms and corporate legal departments in 2013, and if we do we plan to recruit law students more actively than we have in the past. ■ The Minority Clerkship Program was the first program of its kind in the country and has become an inspiration for the 21 THE ATLANTA LAWYER August/September 2012 The Official News Publication of the Atlanta Bar Association