Former U.S. Attorney General Reno to join panel discussion

Former U.S. Attorney General Reno to join panel discussion

According to a recent report by the American Bar Association’s Presidential Advisory Council on Diversity in the Profession, although racial and ethnic minorities make up approximately 30 percent of the U.S. population, they constitute less than 15 percent of practicing attorneys in this country.

Janet Reno

Leaders from the legal profession, education, business and foundations will be on campus Nov. 3-5 to discuss this disturbing statistic as well as how to attract racial and ethnic minority students to the legal profession.

Among those joining in the conversation will be former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, American Bar Association President Michael Greco, Houston Mayor Bill White and Houston education experts, including Linda McNeil, the director of the Center for Education at Rice.

This conference, titled “Embracing the Opportunities for Increasing Diversity Into the Legal Profession: Collaborating to Expand the Pipeline,” will be a forum for leaders to develop collaborative strategies to attract children as young as kindergarten and students as advanced as college — the “pipeline” of the legal workforce — to careers in law.

Among the topics to be examined during the conference will be the “points along the pipeline” — K-12, community college, college, law school, transition to practice; elements of success, including overcoming institutional barriers, the value of mentoring and personal networks, academic assistance; building collaborations; potential challenges; funding diversity pipeline initiatives; and turning ideas into action.

The conference, which will be held in Janice and Robert McNair Hall, is sponsored by the American Bar Association’s Presidential Advisory Council on Diversity in the Profession, the Office of the President and the Center for Education at Rice.

For more information, visit <www.abanet.org/op/pipelineconf/home.html>.