Looking in High Schools to Diversify the Law

To improve diversity in the corporate legal world, some lawyers are thinking it makes sense to start young.

Beginning in 2015, in-house lawyers at Hewlett Packard Enterprise recruited several law firms and other corporate legal departments in the Bay Area for a mentorship program for high school students from low-income areas.

During the past year, two dozen attorneys from Mayer Brown, White & Case, Ropes & Gray, Kirkland & Ellis, Google, HPE, HP Inc., Electronic Arts Inc., Acer and others teamed up with the Silicon Valley Urban Debate League — an organization that introduces high school students from low-income areas to formal debate — and developed a program to groom teenagers for ...