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Abstract: This essay is based on the author’s reflections as a member of the planning committee and a participant in the November 2005 conference co-sponsored by the American Bar Association (ABA) and the Law School Admissions Council (LSAC), entitled Embracing the Opportunities for Increasing Diversity into the Legal Profession: Collaborating to Expand the Pipeline. It discusses the future of diversity in legal education and the bar, focusing on the issue of diversity in the educational pipeline to college and law school. It argues that if the legal profession and law schools want a healthy flow into the law school end of the diversity pipeline, those working for law schools must take a long-term view and pay attention to the beginning of the pipeline. This essay suggests the need for lawyers, members of the law school community, and educators within K-12 and college educational institutions to collaborate in creating and implementing mentoring and other outreach programs for students throughout each major segment of the diversity pipeline to law schools, including ones that reach students as early as elementary school, while students still have time to make fundamental choices that may dictate which educational path they may take.
Keywords: legal education, diversity, education
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