Law Firm Funds Major Effort at City College to Increase Racial Diversity in the Legal Profession

City College of the City University of New York will receive a 10-year, $10 million grant from the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom to support a new program designed to increase diversity in the legal profession. The new initiative, called the Skadden, Arps Honors Program in Legal Studies, will enroll up to 100 junior and senior students at City College. 

Once selected into this competitive program, students will participate in a curriculum that will train them for success in law school. They will receive special tutoring to prepare them to take the Law School Admission Test. Students in the program will be teamed up with a Skadden, Arps attorney as a mentor. Summer internships will be available at law firms, corporate legal departments, and public interest organizations. Need- and merit-based financial aid will be available for students accepted into the honors program.

Funds from the grant will also be used to establish an endowed professorship and to a create a center on campus for the program participants to meet with tutors and advisers.

Blacks are about one quarter of all undergraduate students at City College. Therefore, it is expected that large numbers of blacks will benefit from this new initiative.

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