PreLaw Magazine Names Brooklyn Law School to Its Justice & Opportunity Honor Roll
Brooklyn Law School is recognized on preLaw Magazine’s newly released Justice & Opportunity Honor Roll, which celebrates institutions that display leadership in expanding access to legal education, in alignment with the values of justice and opportunity. The honor roll, which names 35 law schools nationwide, was announced in the publication’s winter edition, released on March 4.
"The Justice & Opportunity Honor Roll recognizes law schools for leadership in expanding access to legal education," the preLaw article states. "The framework reflects an evolution from our previous coverage of diversity alone and places greater emphasis on the structures, policies and programs that create pathways into the legal profession."
As an urban institution where access is the mission, "Brooklyn Law School has built pipeline and first-generation initiatives shaped by New York City’s diversity," the article states.
This accolade resides at the heart of Brooklyn Law School’s longstanding mission to expand opportunity and access to legal education through intentional outreach, robust student support systems, community partnerships, and innovative programs that strengthen inclusion, belonging, and academic success. The commitment to access is reflected in the Law School’s high demographic and experiential diversity, including among first-generation professionals, military veterans (who benefit from a recently expanded Yellow Ribbon program), and international students from around the globe who are enrolled in the Law School's L.L.M. program.
This spring, the mission continues: Brooklyn Law School will launch a Center for Inclusive Excellence, led by Arthur Pinto & Stephen Bohlen Associate Dean of Inclusion & Diversity Dominique Fowler. The center will be laser-focused on areas that bring the community together, such as fostering a sense of belonging through identity-affirming and community-building events; providing inclusive leadership development for students, faculty, and staff; strengthening partnerships with Brooklyn-based organizations; supporting scholarship and dialogue advancing equity and justice; and celebrating institutional pride and community traditions.
"I am so pleased to see Brooklyn Law School has been featured on preLaw’s Justice & Opportunity Honor Roll," Fowler said. "It speaks highly to the strides we have already taken to create a supportive, welcoming learning environment for all our students, from student orientation sessions on how to engage across differences to co-hosting events that bring different perspectives into constructive dialogue. We look forward to building on a strong foundation in the years to come with more innovative programming and robust discussions on the topics of equity, justice, and opportunity."
Ongoing Commitment to Access
Additional initiatives aimed at expanding access to legal education take place across the Law School. They include admissions outreach to underserved and rural areas, and the Public Service Law Center ‘s "Law Student for a Day" program, which allows high school students from diverse and underserved communities to shadow students to learn about the law school experience and gain exposure to the legal profession and higher education. There are first-generation student support programs to fuel academic success, and a robust clinics program that provides essential services to marginalized populations.
Students are involved in creating a more inclusive community as well. For instance, in January, leaders of three student organizations – the Women of Color Alliance, OUTLaws (the LGBTQ+ law student group) and the Legal Association of Women (LAW) – teamed up to host a Pre-Law Pathway Summit for prospective law students in college or high school. In the last week of February and first week of March, students drove Race & the Law Week, a thought-provoking series exploring law, society, and racial justice from a wide range of perspectives. Each year, the student group Brooklyn Law Students for the Public Interest (BLSPI) in conjunction with other student affinity groups and public interest organizations present a series of annual events relating to issues in the law, society, and social concerns that intersect with race in both a current and historical context.