Diversity blurbs

Lack of Diversity Among Lawyers: Not Just a SCOTUS Problem After another Supreme Court term in which zero African-American lawyers argued before the justices, it’s fitting that The Appellate Project has arrived on the scene with the goal of increasing diversity in the mainly white and male appellate bar. Launched last November, the project is developing ways to interest minority law students in appellate work at an early stage. Its programs will work toward that goal through educational outreach, partnering with Howard University Law School to add appellate work to its civil rights clinic, and an “incubator” summer fellowship program to connect students to appellate practitioners and judges for mentoring. The project is the brainchild of Juvaria Khan, a civil rights lawyer who decided to act after a decade of litigation in different settings, most recently working for Muslim Advocates. “At each stage, I was struck by the lack of diversity” especially among appellate lawyers, she said. “It was very troubling to me.” With the financial help of family and friends last November, Khan left her job and built the project online, consulting with lawyers and judges on how to remedy the problem. She got enthusiastic responses and decided to attack the problem at the law-student stage. Khan is now talking to law firms about help to grow the project. Her scope is wider than helping minority students to become Supreme Court practitioners, but for her board of directors she recruited, among others, high court advocates including former U.S. solicitor general Donald Verrilli Jr., now partner at Munger, Tolles & Olson; Sarah Harrington, partner at Goldstein & Russell; and Roy Englert Jr., partner at Robbins, Russell, Englert, Orseck, Untereiner & Sauber. >> “My friend Juvaria Khan has a well-thought-through, concrete plan for improving diversity in the appellate bar by starting very early in prospective lawyers’ studies and making them aware of opportunities and challenges alike,” Englert said. “Whatever the sources of the problem of underrepresentation, I do believe that a problem exists.” >> “I became involved in The Appellate Project because I believe that the highest courts in our country should hear from a diverse range of voices,” Harrington said. “The Appellate Project hopes to increase diversity in the appellate bar by addressing some systemic barriers that lawyers of color face in entering the small and relatively insular appellate bar.” Check back at the NLJ today for a more detailed report about the project. —Tony Mauro AND Noel Francisco’s Exit Trims Scant High Court Minority Presence. "Solicitor General Noel Francisco plans to step down when the Supreme Court term ends this summer, meaning one of the nation’s highest profile non-White lawyers will no longer argue the government’s cases before the country’s most important court." [Bloomberg Law] And Bloomberg has: No Black Judges Among Trump’s Appeals Court Confirmations Trump appointed one Hispanic and zero Black appeals court judges Diversity in appellate picks is almost entirely Asian Americans Donald Trump is on track to be the first president since Richard Nixon to go a full first term without selecting a Black nominee for a federal appeals court.