The Rochester Difference
Minority Clerkship Program Opens Doors for UB Law Students

A Thruway alliance of sorts, now entering its fifth year, has proved its worth in a big way by making one legal community more diverse – and offering a crucial first step for UB Law students.

In its first four years, the Minority Clerkship Program of the Monroe County Bar Association has placed 31 UB Law students in internships during the summer following their first year of legal training. The placements are with law firms, corporations and public agencies including the district attorney's office and the Monroe County Legal Assistance Corp., and come with a minimum salary of about $700 a week – unusual for first-year legal internships.

Michael Wolford '68

"We've been very pleased," says Michael Wolford '68, of the Wolford Law Firm in Rochester, who instituted the program when he was president of the bar association. "There just are not a lot of minority lawyers in town, so we decided that one way of trying to increase the number is to start early and try to attract law students who might be willing to relocate and practice in Rochester.

"Monroe County is about 20 percent minority, including African-American, Hispanic, Asian and Native American residents. Yet among our attorneys, we might have 2 percent or 3 percent people of color. The purpose of the clerkship program is to try to have positions for more minority lawyers so ultimately they'll work their way up to the judiciary and other responsible positions. Our whole purpose is to recruit these folks so that they'll come back permanently."

Though the "vast majority" of applicants to the program come from UB Law, Wolford says, it is open to first-year students at all law schools, and students from Syracuse, Albany, Fordham, Detroit and throughout New England have taken part.

The program is administered by the bar association's Diversity Committee, all practicing attorneys in the Rochester area. Wolford travels to Buffalo in January to meet with interested students, and applications are available on the bar association's Web site as well. Applicants provide a writing sample and their undergraduate and Law School transcripts, then go to Rochester to be interviewed by members of the Diversity Committee. Those who are chosen are assigned at random to summer positions among the participating firms and agencies.

For this coming summer, Wolford says, 21 students applied for eight available slots.

In addition to learning on the job, the interns have weekly "Lunch and Learn" presentations at which they hear judges and practitioners talk about their areas of expertise.

Jacia T. Smith '07

One UB Law product who took part in the program in its first year is Jacia T. Smith '07. She worked for Wolford in the summer of 2005, returned to Rochester the next summer for a different placement, and now practices environmental law, labor and employment law, and litigation as an associate in the Rochester office of the Harris Beach law firm.

Smith says she had been intending to seek employment in Washington, D.C., or New York City before the Minority Clerkship Program changed her mind.

"It did take some convincing to keep me at home," says Smith, a native of Rochester. "This program is a way to get minorities who traditionally wouldn't look at a smaller city like Rochester to do so."

In addition, she says, the program's focus on first-year law students is appealing. "The opportunities for first-years alone are limited, and when you couple that with being a minority first-year, that's an even bigger obstacle," she says. "This program gives first-year law students a great opportunity to work in big law firms and corporations."

She's sold on the program – and now, as a member of the bar association's Diversity Committee, helps review applications and serves as a mentor to some of the law students who have followed her into that critical summer job.