Navigating the Path to Law School
In the heart of Boston, a group of aspiring lawyers gather in an oak-paneled moot court room. The scene resembles a law school class, but these aren't law students. They're participants in Suffolk University Law School's Summer Pre-Law Achievers Network, a two-week immersion program designed for first-generation college students, students from low-income families, and groups underrepresented in the legal profession.
The award-winning program aims to demystify the path to law school, offering a comprehensive immersion including visits to Boston-area courts, networking opportunities with Suffolk Law alumni in many areas of the law, and practical sessions on the law school application process, LSAT preparation, and scholarship opportunities.
Jada Trench, a Jamaican-American junior at Howard University, a preeminent historically black institution, says the desire to go to law school comes with a lot of fears of not living up to expectations. Her close-knit family, living in Dorchester, Mass, has made sacrifices throughout her life to provide her with educational opportunities. “My mom expects all of her kids to go and soar. Education is what got her out of her circumstances. She holds educational achievement in very high regard,” she says.
Trench has struggled with concerns about the cost of attending law school. She sees those payments as her personal responsibility, so loans and scholarships will have to cover it, she says. During the program she learned about financial aid and scholarships and Suffolk’s Historically Black Colleges & Universities tuition scholarship among other programs.
The Achievers program allowed the student participants, many of them also facing financial stressors, to hear from many Suffolk Law alumni who shared their own worries about paying for law school. The alums ultimately managed to pay off their loans—and reach their career goals, Trench says. “They told us to consider law school as a big investment in our future selves, but that we could do it. And that was a relief.”
One critical part of the Achievers’ training is a course that takes apart a complex drunk-driving case and culminates with a mock trial with a professor playing the judge. The students, dressed in court attire, act as defense lawyers or prosecutors.
On “game day” Trench asked the judge—in this case former prosecutor, Professor Elizabeth Stillman—to accept a motion to dismiss charges of drunk driving filed by the Commonwealth against a driver who fell asleep in her car. Stillman interrupted Trench to ask some important questions: Was the driver’s key in the ignition? Was the car actually running? Were the car’s wheels on a roadway?
“I am not used to being interrupted while I speak,” Trench said, “and I'm not used to being questioned in the middle of my argument, so that was definitely a very thrilling and nerve-wracking experience for me.”
She’s going to take Professor Stillman's litigation advice moving forward, she says: “Don’t sound defensive. Prepare as much as you can, and answer the questions calmly.”
For Imani James, a junior at Florida A&M, also an HBCU, the summer program offered useful advice and was emotionally satisfying. Her roommate was helpful and friendly, and the Suffolk Law team went out of their way to make the Achiever students feel at ease, she says.
The positive feedback she received about her courtroom oral argument during the moot court and her own confidence during the trial also made her wonder whether she might actually want to be a trial attorney. "I'm more leaning towards the transactional side. I've never considered litigation," she says. “But I started to think maybe I would thrive doing trial work.”
At one of the sessions, she learned that many law schools appreciate applicants who have work experience and the life skills provided by the demands of a work setting, so she will keep that in mind as she makes plans after graduation.
James says that the group’s visit to the Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) of Massachusetts was surprising. While she expected the court to be formal, SJC Justice Serge Georges, a Haitian-American Suffolk Law alumnus, spoke in an emotionally authentic way about the importance of having a diverse group of lawyers, like the Achievers, reshaping the world.