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A little information about this new and innovative program . . . The Minnesota Minority Clerkship Program is a program in its third year designed to foster diversity within the Minnesota legal community and invite you to participate. This program is designed to match selected students-of-color from Minnesota law schools with participating Minnesota legal employers. Participating employers will hire selected students-of-color after their first-year of law school for a summer associate clerkship and provide a “real world” legal experience to him or her. Conversely, selected students would provide the employer’s organization with valuable legal support, as well as a unique and diverse perspective. Twenty (20) students-of-color at the Minnesota law schools will be selected to participate in the Summer 2008 program. This clerkship program gives employers and students a unique opportunity to share experiences, to obtain “real world” experiences and to promote diversity in the legal profession. We invite you to participate in this program and gain a summer clerkship with one of Minnesota’s leading private law firms, corporate legal departments or government agencies—all practice settings in which diverse attorneys are currently under-represented. Our student participants . . . This program is intended for students in their first year at a Minnesota law school and beyond-Hamline University School of Law, University of Minnesota School of Law, University of St. Thomas School of Law, and William Mitchell College of Law-who self-identify in one or more of the following racial and/or ethnic designations, as used by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission:
In addition, students in their first-year of school in a non-Minnesota
law school may apply to this program, but must establish that they have
a tangible relationship to the State of Minnesota. No more than twenty
percent (20%) of the students selected for this program will be from a
non-Minnesota law school. Our employer participants . . . The confirmed list of employer participants for the Summer 2008 Minnesota Minority Clerkship Program includes:: Board of Pensions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
America Employer registration for the Summer 2008 Clerkship Program is complete. Employers who are interested in participating in the 2009 Summer Program should contact Marta M. Chou, Chair of the MSBA Diversity Committee, at mmchou@rkmc.com. Benefits in participating in this program . . . This program will give law firms, corporate legal departments, and government agencies a unique opportunity to promote diversity within their firms and agencies through hiring students-of-color from Minnesota law schools—practice settings in which diverse lawyers are now under-represented. In participating in this program, employers are assisted in finding highly qualified candidates for employment for summer months and beyond, all while increasing their workforce diversity. In turn, student participants will gain a unique opportunity to obtain “real world” experiences after only their first-year of law school at a premier legal employer. Responsibilities . . . While the clerkship program is organized through the MSBA, it is the individual employers who hire the students. As such, the students are afforded the same level of respect and professionalism any person hired by the organization. Each participating employer will hire one or more law students at their organization's normal salary for first-year summer clerks, and provide the clerks with legal work, mentors, frequent performance feedback, and exit interviews. In addition, each employer must consider its clerkship student for an offer to return to work in the future, e.g., school year clerk, 2L summer associate, post-graduation, etc. In turn, each participating student is asked to work for the selected employer for an eight to twelve week period during the summer after their first-year of law school. During that time, they will conduct legal work, including, but not limited to: research, writing, analyzing, and engaging in thoughtful discussions in an effort to serve the employer and the employer’s clients. For additional information, please contact Marta M.
Chou, Chair of the Diversity Committee of the Minnesota State Bar Association
at mmchou@rkmc.com |
