Elon University’s School of Law will hold its fifth annual Diversity Day on Feb. 11. The goal of Diversity Day is to attract and recruit diverse students to the law school, and thereby encourage them to apply to and enroll at Elon Law.
Maximillian Armfield, an admissions recruiter for the law school, said the event is held to serve minority students in the community who want to learn about legal education. By interacting with practicing attorneys and law students, those students can more easily envision themselves following a similar path.
He also said it is a service to the legal profession.
“Great strides are being made by the American Bar Association, its member law schools, and the Law School Admission Council to help eliminate the disparity of minority representation in the legal community, for a diverse legal profession is simply a smarter profession,” Armfield said. “Where there are different views and different experiences, better questions are asked. With better questions comes more thoughtful analysis, which leads to better solutions.”
There will be a law school admissions panel, at which the steps to applying to law school will be discussed. The program will also include a panel of currently enrolled law students who will answer questions on what it’s like to be in law school. Attorneys from various areas of the profession will speak about their jobs and engage the students’ questions. There will be a keynote speaker, followed by a law school fair, where students can meet with representatives from North and South Carolina law schools.
The program is open to the public, but Sharon Gaskin, associate dean of admissions at the law school, said the groups that are most encouraged to attend are high school students and college freshmen and sophomores, so they can begin to learn about courses and programs that will prepare them for the rigors of law school and the demands of the legal profession early in their education.
The keynote speaker for this year will be Judge James Spencer, who has had a distinguished career on the federal bench.
He was the first black assistant U.S. attorney to be assigned to the Major Crimes Division in Washington, D.C., and to be nominated as a federal judge for the Eastern District of Virginia, where he was the first black chief judge.
“He is known as a talented speaker, and he enjoys speaking to young people about the law and seeking a career in the legal profession,” Gaskin said.
The title of this year’s program is “Diversity in the Legal Profession: The Unfinished Work,” which Armfield said he thinks sums up their goals for the day.
“An Elon Law program like Diversity Day, which is open to students who might not have ever been on a college campus, helps students to reach long-term educational and professional goals by providing tools to help them stay in school and be successful there,” Armfield said. “We point them to resources to help them prepare for the Law School Admissions Test and, through our law fair, allow them to ‘travel’ to seven different law schools without having to leave one room.”
Armfield said Diversity Day is not only important to the legal profession, but also to the Elon community because it continues its unprecedented commitment for diversity. But he said there is always more that can be done.
“We’ve made some important and significant strides in advancing the roles of minorities in law, but there’s a lot more progress to be made,” he said.