By Stephanie Schorow
innovation
As Kyara Brown began her opening statement with the customary “may it please the court,” the 19-year-old showed just a hint of nervousness. Identifying herself as representing the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, she asked the court to reject a motion to dismiss charges of drunk driving against the defendant, a woman who had been found asleep in her parked car with a high blood-alcohol level.
The proceeding wasn’t in an actual Massachusetts courtroom but rather in a moot courtroom in Sargent Hall. Nevertheless, the judge—played by Dyane O’Leary, associate professor of Legal Writing—rigorously questioned Brown. Was the key in the ignition? Was the car actually running? Were the car’s wheels on a roadway? Brown’s jitters vanished, and she spoke with clarity and conviction, referencing notes she had carefully prepared. “It was a very invigorating experience,” she said after the “court” had recessed.
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Photographs by Michael J. Clarke
winter 2023
Brown, a Las Vegas native and rising senior at Northern Arizona University, wants to be a lawyer, but the process of applying to and getting through law school was daunting. So on the recommendation of an advisor, she flew to Boston in June 2022 to join 17 other participants in Suffolk Law’s new Summer Pre-Law Pipeline Program. Spearheaded by Assistant Dean Cherina Wright, JD/MBA ’17, the new program supports students from diverse or nontraditional backgrounds, including first-generation and low-income college students, to prepare effective law school applications and to succeed academically once they are admitted.
For two weeks, the students attended law classes, heard presentations on the application process, and sat in on actual arraignments. They had in-person meetings with Suffolk Law alumni, including Supreme Judicial Court Justice Serge Georges, Jr., JD ’96, HLLD ’21, and Suffolk County’s First Assistant District Attorney Kevin Mullen, JD ’94. They attended and took a final exam in the course Rights, Wrongs, and Justice, taught by Vice Dean and Professor of Law Patrick Shin. Finally, they researched and prepared arguments for a moot court session, based on Massachusetts statutes, in an exercise designed by Professor O’Leary.
“Access to the legal profession is such a hurdle, in particular for racially diverse and first-generation students,” Wright says. “I remember how hard it was, as a first-generation student myself, and as a Black woman, to navigate getting into law school and deal with all the things you need to know about the application.”
The pipeline program is not just for Suffolk-bound students; it was designed to give a boost to all those considering law school. Wright believes this approach is crucial for making the legal profession more inclusive. “If we want to diversify the profession, we have to diversify law school,” Wright says. “This is a way to give pre-law students access to that last step in the pipeline to really determine if this is for them.”
Participant Tylan Mendes, a rising senior at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, says the program showed him what is required for law school and what the classes will be like. “But beyond that, they also introduced us to some significant people in the field,” he says. “Everybody here at one point was in our position. They had to do the work to get here, and I can do it, too.”
Suffolk University rising senior Samantha Restrepo-Ramirez, Class of 2023, says she had dreamed of being a lawyer since she was young, but without mentors in the field, she wasn’t sure how to pursue her dream. The program exceeded her expectations. “It built me up in a way where I felt so capable of going through this journey,” she says; at the same time it showed her what more she needed to do to prepare.
Many of the pipeline participants questioned whether they had the ability to be lawyers someday, says Wright. “Now, after a few weeks meeting with attorneys who themselves were anxious about going to law school, and talking to people from similar walks of life, their confidence has grown.”