Increasing diversity through the admissions process

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Continuing a tangent in the Biglaw Firm Stereotypes thread: how/why should law schools be designing their admissions processes to increase diversity?

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How should law schools design their admissions processes to increase diversity? 

A 3/3/3 approach. 1/3 based solely on marks. 1/3 that adds factors in scoring for various self-disclosed diversity factors that aren't just racial like the American schools do. 1/3 access candidates that without special consideration would not have been offered admission but have significant accomplishments or other things that demonstrate that they could be successful in law school. BUT also - from the 3/3/3/ I think that every Canadian school needs to have an Indigenous category that will ensure that more than 10% of students are Indigenous. So pull some spots from the other three groups. 

Schools should be attracting the academically bright. They add significant value to the school. They enhance conversations. They put pressure on me to up my game. They worked hard, and they deserve a spot. For the next cohort, factoring in life experiences, racial/ethnic make-up etc, will be able to offset some of the systemic issues that people face when getting to law school. Eg. people who grew up in public housing don't exactly have families who came from money that can contribute to expensive LSAT prep courses, LSAT re-takes, etc. 

A larger access category will ensure people with grit and drive (perhaps with added support to help mitigate challenges) will add diversity to the classroom discussions. These people often come with some significant life experience. It could be traumatic, it could be work experience, etc. They don't need to disclose, but their perspectives add value to the classroom discussions. 

Why should law schools be designing processes to increase diversity? 

Law schools are the lawyer pipeline. By having more diverse candidates, we will see more diversity within firms. This matters so that people don't feel alone when navigating unique things related to their diversity factors within firms. Clients also care about diversity. The federal government is requiring diversity reporting for many contractors. If you want sizeable public sector clients, you better start ensuring that your lawyers at your firm are diverse and those staffing the particular file. 

It enhances conversations within classrooms. I have had two professors approach me after class this year to ask about my background and perspective because they can tell that there is experience of some kind behind questions I ask them. I know it adds value, and it is because of the various things that make me a "diverse" law student. 

To me, a diverse student body makes for a more attractive school. I attend UBC and learn so much from my peers and their experiences. I learn so much from their questions. I value being around people who have different life experiences. One student called me out due to something I said, and I appreciated it because I had not even considered the perspective they shared. I also have blind spots, and I appreciate the opportunity to learn more about those blind spots while I am in school in somewhat of a safer environment than really messing up in the workplace (and it was easy for me to be cancelled due to the comment that I made - and I appreciated the maturity that this person showed in allowing it as a learning opportunity). 

The schools themselves also have an opportunity to learn from diverse students and address their own blind spots (and are hopefully open to addressing them). There are two very obvious examples from my year. There is someone in 1L at UBC that is in a wheelchair. Sometimes it seems like Allard has never had a student in a wheelchair because this student experiences so many barriers. It must be exhausting both physically and mentally to be this person. On top of the stresses of law school, they have to navigate mobility and added financial challenges that none of us have to deal with - and the school keeps screwing up (how CDO, student, firm events, etc. are held in non-wheelchair accessible locations in 2023 is beyond me). 

I asked the CDO to host something for mature students. Some of you may have seen me post a document from Fasken's Toronto office that has a very obvious hostile tone towards mature students. I know that mature students are going to experience unconscious bias in hiring, and we really could use some targeted information from the law school about how to navigate this. But nope - the CDO said that they have already scheduled all of their events for the year, so they won't consider adding one to guide us mature students (I asked this question last year). I can't be the first mature student. Some kind of resource would have been helpful (at the very minimum, resume advice adapted to those with substantive work experience). 

Anyways, I don't think that I really answered your questions - but we do need diversity in law school classrooms. But like law firms, it isn't enough to ensure your classrooms are diverse. You need to ensure you support students as well. I don't know the details but I know that a couple of indigenous students aren't exactly feeling supported at UBC. There is a complicated colonial history behind Canadian law and indigenous peoples and it would be great if there was real support for Indigenous students to navigate what comes up for them instead of relying on ILSA members to support each other. I noticed that UBC relies on members of affinity groups to support each other instead of having some kind of systemic support from the school. If you have a disability, you will get better support and advice from ULDA than you will from the school (and I worry about this because right now there are some part-time students that are active in ULDA that really are the backbone of support. I am barely surviving at times due to taking a full course load and having significant disability-related challenges and wonder whether or not I will be able to step in as a support for other students when the current part-timers are eventually finished).