The Pipeline Problem

Most of California's high school graduates are not prepared to go to college, let alone law school. Only about 30 percent of the state's high school students passed the school exit exam in 2008. And among that year's high school graduates, only 22.5 percent of Hispanic students and 23.3 percent of African Americans completed the coursework required for applying to the University of California and the California State University system, according to the state department of education.

"By the time the pipeline reaches the law school gate, it is very narrow and broken," says Sarah Redfield, author of 2009's Diversity Realized: Putting the Walk with the Talk for Diversity in the Legal Profession. In fact, nationwide the enrollment of Mexican-American and African-American law school students has actually decreased since 1993, a recent study by the Columbia University Law School and the Society of American Law Teachers found.

Despite the discouraging trend, Redfield believes that more minority candidates can fill the pipeline. This would require higher expectations for students, more experienced teachers, more guidance counselors and role models, and more rigorous programs and courses - such as UC Irvine's Saturday Academy of Law for high school students. "The legal profession is well suited to supporting this kind of intervention, what the [Bill & Melinda] Gates Foundation has called 'the new 3Rs,' " says Redfield. "We are good at rigor; law is exceedingly relevant; we are good at relationships: mentors, role models, and teachers."

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