A priority of the UNC School of Law Career Development Office is to provide programs for our diverse student body, identify and promote opportunities that are targeted to minority and diverse law students, and participate in programs and committees within the legal profession that focus on diversity. Our diversity initiatives include:
- Sponsoring or co-sponsoring diversity programs such as the Student Bar Association Diversity Committee’s “Voices of Diversity: Challenges, Roadblocks and Triumphs in the Legal Workplace” alumni panel event.
- Developing close relationships with diverse students in order to assist them as law students and invite them as alumni to participate in CDO programs such as Career Night and panels throughout the year.
- Working closely with diversity/minority student organizations (BLSA, AALSA, HLLSA, NALSA, Outlaw, and SBA).
- Maintaining diversity listservs and a section of our email newsletter to share information with minority law students and highlight relevant programs and opportunities.
- Maintaining a comprehensive list of off-campus Diversity Interview Programs across the country that focus on 1L and 2L summer associate/internship opportunities. The list is available and advertised to our students throughout the year. The list includes details about registration requirements and deadlines, locations and dates, the interviewing selection process, and the practice settings of participating employers.
- Hosting information sessions on Diversity Interview Programs. Twice a year, we hold info sessions about off-campus interview programs that primarily target 1L students for minority and diversity summer positions and scholarships. Often 2L and 3L students provide advice to peers and talk about their experiences in these interview programs.
- Coaching first-year students selected for interviews for the two premier minority/diversity summer programs that place students in law firms and corporations in North Carolina: the North Carolina Bar Association’s Minorities in the Profession Summer Associates Program and the Charlotte Legal Diversity Clerkships (CLDC).
- Preparing students for the Southeastern Law School Consortium: Progress in the Profession interview program. SELSC is the largest minority law student summer off-campus interview program in the country. With the help of CDO counselors, UNC School of Law has consistently secured the first or second highest number of students of any participating law school selected for interviews, callbacks and summer associate/internship offers in recent years. Many Carolina Law students participating in these programs have gone on to secure permanent law firm offers from their summer employers
- Identifying minority and diversity attorneys (both alumni and friends of the school) to be included on our list of attorney volunteers. These attorneys participate in various CDO panels and programs, ensuring that the diversity of our student body is reflected in these events.