By Sandra Madrid, Assistant Dean UW School of Law

The passage of Initiative 200 in 1998 established a statewide prohibition against the use of race as a factor in public higher education admissions. It led to a sudden and very serious setback to ethnic diversity in the University of Washington School of Law’s entering classes, in part due to the prohibition itself, but also because of the perception that the School of Law -- along with the State of Washington -- was no longer a welcoming environment for historically under-represented students.

Since then, the UW Law School has undertaken a variety of initiatives designed to attract highly qualified minority students and, through outreach, to develop a pipeline of students who possess law school qualifications prior to college graduation. Here are a few of them.

The Road to Law School (RTLS)

The UW has the largest enrollment of undergraduate students of color in the Northwest. Under the umbrella of our Road to Law School Program, we target high-achieving UW freshmen and other undergraduates and nurture them toward law school, largely through our freshman and junior/senior Pre-Law Seminars.

As they go through the admissions process, seminar students and others associated with RTLS, work very closely with the Law School’s diversity consultant. Combined with this assistance, we offer students scholarships, through a fund established by Dennis Franklin (UW Law, 1978) for enrollment in LSAT prep courses. During the past three years, some 27 seminar students have gone on to law school at the UW, Seattle University and other law schools around the country.

The RTLS high school pipeline project brings students of color to the law school to interact with Dean Joe Knight, faculty and law students of color and to participate in our Street Law program. This activity will be taken to the Yakima Valley this year to reach out to more Latino/a and Native American students. These efforts are strengthened through our partnership with the King County Bar Foundation’s Future of the Law Institute.

In 2004, we were one of three law schools in the nation to win a Law School Admission Council grant to organize the Native American Students Law Conference, an event that brought 100 Native American college and high school students from Washington, Idaho and Alaska to meet for two days with Native American judges and attorneys from various walks of the legal profession.

Financial Aid
To help address an issue that rivals I-200 as a high barrier to law school, the family of Gordon Livengood (UW Law, 1952) created the Livengood Law Studies Fellowships. During the past three years, 16 UW students of color have received these awards, most of them for $10,000. This fund also enhances our diversity recruitment by bringing top out-of-state prospects to the law school to meet the dean, faculty and students and to sit in on classes.

Support of Current Law Students
We provide one-of-a-kind support for all J.D. students of color through our mentoring programs, which separately assign students to three different kinds of mentors: professional, faculty and law students of color. Through the Alumni Ambassador Program, approximately 50 UW minority alumni throughout the country assist with diversity recruitment.

A number of these alumni are veteran ambassadors whose recruitment stature has been enhanced as they have become judges, partners in major law firms and public service attorneys. Many have gone on to be honored and recognized in their communities.

Partnership Work with Minority Law Student Groups
Through the students’ J.D. years, the law school works in partnership with all of the minority law student organizations and faculty to strengthen the development of professional skills. This year, the Native American Law Students Association has received funding to host the national moot court competitions and the Latino/a Law Student Association (in a combined effort with Seattle University Law School) will host the National Latino/a Law Students Association Conference. Last spring, the Black Law Students Association hosted the first-ever reunion of UW Law School alumni.