KHOP has been a staple of the school since the program’s inception in 2001. It is designed to not only aid students from underrepresented communities in the law school admissions process, but also in receiving mentoring and pre-law advising during their academic career. Students receive tips, and learn the writing, analytical and reasoning skills needed to strengthen their skills in their academic pursuits. [hopefully there is a wine bar involved, -ed]That's the sort of delightful pipe one can smoke; if you dislike that I'm suddenly mixing metaphors, you can "suck it," as the kids say.
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According to ABA, 100 students have at least one year finished at KHOP to date, while 240 students have finished the two-year program. In addition, 41 percent of the students involved have graduated or are entering a law program, and 99 percent of the alumni involved are graduates from four-year universities.
Given that there's never been a better time to go to law school (remember, when the smart money sells, it's always time to buy!), UC Davis is doing marvelous things having a program specifically laying pipe for these students to swim through, then to be gloriously discharged into serving the American public and preserving the Rule of Law.
The career boost given to that 41% of students in the KHOP program who go to law school can't be quantified. I mean sure, we can calculate up the modest tuition payments to American law schools, and we could hire a mathematician and figure out how much money a 160k median salary figures to be after middling debt payments, but the real value of legal education is intangible. Knowing that we have a body of warm bodies ready to sacrifice themselves on grenades of justice, well, shit, money can't buy that. The comfort in having that group of people becomming sligthly darker and speaking with more of an accent? Well, that assuages centuries of social injustice, when minorities weren't allowed to find out how wonderful being a justicei crusader can be in a world that is desperate for them.
It's, frankly, enough to inspire anyone who understands the value of legal education to start laying pipe, too.
"Social justice" has been filling ABA-accredited dung heaps, for decades.
ReplyDeleteI practice in a jurisdiction where attorneys and judges of all stripes practice. It is shameful and degrading to target "insular and discrete minorities." None, I repeat, none of my colleagues were recruited based on membership to a group or attended unranked law schools. All are extremely bright and better lawyers than I. All attended top ranked schools. The problem with admissions is that highly qualified students of any stripe will avoid attendance because the law is no longer a vehicle to a middle class income. The practice is grotesquely over-saturated, the pie is spread too thinly. The cat is out of the bag.
ReplyDeleteUnless successful graduates get a HUGE break on law school tuition as well as a leg up on admissions, how is this program different from targeted marketing efforts? Are social justice ends served by selling law school to underserved communities when the most likely result for graduates is unemployment and six figures of debt?
ReplyDeleteLaying Pipe
ReplyDelete