The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
New Haven County Bar Association’s L.A.W. Camp is needed, welcomed
If justice is to be served equally in the nation’s courtrooms, then the judicial system must find a way to diversify the legal profession.
The American Bar Association’s 2016 breakdown of lawyer demographics brought some sobering news: Nearly 90 percent of lawyers across the country are white.
That is not a number to cheer and the New Haven County Bar Association is taking notice.
The association recently launched an initiative to increase diversity in the judicial system and inspire Greater New Haven area youth to think about a career in the nation’s court system.
The NHCBA hosted a fourday L.A.W. Camp for high school students that took the students inside the judicial system and showed them what lies beyond the headlines.
The law-related venues gave the 48 participating students the opportunity to learn about the law and legal profession by interacting and learning from practicing lawyers and judges.
During the four-day camp, which ran July 18 through 21, students got real hands-on experience by receiving instruction in actual law school classrooms and engaging in panel discussions.
They learned the ins and outs of working together as a team, to delegate and share tasks, learn the facts of the trial efficiently and the skills associated with public speaking.
They also visited a law firm and held mock trials at the New Haven Superior Court and the U.S. District Court, as the program attempts to simulate for students what it is like to be a “real” lawyer.
This is an important initiative and one that should help increase the ranks of minorities in the judicial field, just as exposure to professions inside police and fire departments helped bring more minorities into their folds.
Young adults must be able to see past the sometimes tedious ABCs of education not only to understand how it can work for them but the exciting possibilities it offers
The New Haven County Bar Association should be applauded for its efforts to reach out to minorities “regardless of socioeconomic or cultural background” so the legal field is representative of society.” But will it work? Only time will tell but the L.A.W. Camp is needed and welcomed.
Civil litigation lawyer Siobhan Barco said “people, a lot of times, are more comfortable having a lawyer who they can relate to.”
Camper Maya Berghese, 15, said, “Everyone interacts with the law at some point, so it’s good to have a variety of people representing the issues that are most important to them.”
If that’s the case, the association’s initiative is off to a good start.