Young Lawyers Section

THINKING OUT LOUD

 As my tenure as YLS President draws to a close I am, for better or worse, on my next to last article to be published in this magazine. Unfortunately, I now notice that several topics that I did not have an opportunity to address are meritorious of discussion. Therefore, I must attempt to get several things off my chest in the course of this particular article.

Although I understand value of and have an appreciation for the work done by juries throughout this country (and wish for no system to take its place) I sometimes, like others, question the wisdom of certain verdicts. For example, I was recently pained by the verdict in the Amadou Diallo case in New York. As most of you know, Mr. Diallo was killed by New York City police officers after he reached for his wallet to identify himself. He was gunned down in a hail of bullets with forty-one rounds striking the unarmed man. The jury acquitted all four officers who were involved in the shooting.

That decision bothered me greatly because I had hoped that in this modern America that one could not so quickly and needlessly lose his life, for what appears to me to be the color of their skin. This especially should not occur when one is not in violation of the law. However, I should note that the police officers in the Diallo case, like the rest of us involved in this judicial system; judges, lawyers, jurors, witnesses, police officers and the like, are all products of the environment in which we reside. The assumptions made by these police officers, the prejudices that they carried with them are the assumptions and prejudices of their roots, their neighborhoods, and their society. These are not necessarily the excesses of egregious bigots, but rather the ways in which societal class and race change everything, often in a subtle, unconscious fashion. It is astonishing that in a nation allegedly based on equality, that there are a group of our citizens who are assumed, simply by virtue of appearance, to be less. Even worse, we find that the best, most even thinking, non-prejudiced lawyers and judges, no matter his or her race or ethnic make-up, engage in similar thinking everyday – but of course we would never admit it.

Another thing that has been bothering me is law enforcement’s use of racial profiling. As you know, racial profiling is used in order to make a stop or a search of an individual who fits a profile, on the assumption the person profiled may be more likely to be a perpetrator of a certain offense. Racial profiling has become so common-place, that it has been given the acronym "DWB" or driving while Black. DWB is an offense I commit everyday and on occasion, have been stopped for said offense. This is one of the most offensive and egregious use of police powers I have personally experienced. I am sure that most of you have never been stopped for driving while in the course of being Black, or have ever been stopped for no reason at all. However, understanding why the practice exists speaks volumes to how far our country has to go to fully achieve equity among races.

Lastly, I am hopeful for the continued diversification of the Bar and of the different segments of the law practice in which minorities are involved. The minority population of the Bar remains relatively small and most of the lawyers who are members of this Bar either practice alone or with a governmental agency. I hope the large and economically solvent firms continue and increase their efforts to recruit and retain minority lawyers.

Minority law students and lawyers are not asking for special privileges, but for the same measure of opportunity available without question to their majority race counterparts. Minority student applicants, like white applicants, must have such opportunities as clerkships and internships in order to succeed in private practice. For this to happen, law firms must be willing to offer all individuals a chance. Firms today should be more willing than in the past to make such offers: demographic changes and shifts in the business and political climate make it in their interest to do so. It is not at all difficult to articulate reasons and find criteria for identifying promising attorneys and clerks of color. With modest efforts, law firms may rapidly and profitably increase minority representation in their ranks. Society at large and the legal system itself will be made better for it. But please don’t be too alarmed – I’m just thinking out loud.