Minnesota Lawyer Blog

While law schools nationwide have been grappling with recent declines in the number of enrollments from diverse candidates, Minnesota's four law schools have been pretty much holding steady and, in one case, substantially increasing its pool of diverse students.

The University of St. Thomas School of Law was one of about 20 schools in the country to report a recent increase in minority enrollment of 20 percent or more, according to Cari Haaland, the school’s director of admissions. First-year enrollment of minorities has nearly doubled since UST Law started in 2001 -- going from about 8 percent to 15 percent in 2007, she said.

Locally, the University of Minnesota Law School is in the lead for diverse enrollments, with about 16 percent. UST Law is second at 15 percent. Hamline University School of Law is third at 13.3 percent. And William Mitchell College of Law is fourth at 11 percent.

All of these schools are pretty aggressive about recruiting diverse candidates to come to Minnesota (and to stay in Minnesota), but it can be tough when you are competing with more glamorous markets that don't have sub-zero winter temperatures. So given all that, I was pleased to hear Minnesota is bucking the national trend. All of these schools have strong plans to continue working toward a more diverse student body.

For more, check out the article from this week's Minnesota Lawyer, which is the first part of a two-part special focus on diversity in the law.

Governor Tim Pawlenty will no doubt soon be turning his attention to filling that vacancy on the Minnesota Supreme Court created by Justice Sam Hanson's decision to step down at the end of the year and return to his old firm, Briggs & Morgan. (See story in last week's Minnesota Lawyer, password required.)

The governor -- and whatever committee he chooses to assist him -- will be looking at a variety of factors in choosing a replacement for Hanson. It should obviously be someone who is highly intelligent with a stellar resume and a personalty that will fit well with the rest of the court. No doubt, Pawlenty also wants someone who will not be an activist judge -- whatever that means these days. But what else?

Diversity is probably the biggest other factor that is on the mind of the legal community. With Hanson's departure, the court will be left with one African American justice (who gained his seat through election rather than appointment), two women justices and three justices with the surname of Anderson. There has never been an African American, Native American, Hispanic or Asian candidate appointed to the Minnesota high court -- an odd situation given that there are so many qualified lawyers in each of these groups.

I have no idea who will apply -- or who whatever committee the governor appoints will ultimately recommend -- but I can think of plenty of potential candidates who, not only would add a diverse perspective to the court, but also who are extremely well-qualified. Just to name a few, what about smart-as-a-whip Court of Appeals Judge Mimi Wright or the highly capable and service-minded Hennepin County District Court Judge Tony Leung? What about Bowman and Brooke attorney George Soule, who has done yeoman's work on judicial selection and as an officer at the Minnesota American Indian Bar Association? What about Hennepin County Public Defender Lenny Castro, who was recently a finalist for a seat on the Court of Appeals? And I could go on and on.

The other element to diversity is, of course, the gender composition. Minnesota not long ago was the first in the nation state high court to achieve a majority of women (4/7) -- now we are down to two. There are more well-qualified women candidates in Minnesota than I could ever hope to list here. How about selecting one of them?

I do not think that diversity should be the sole, or even dominant, consideration -- that should be the candidate's qualifications and abilities. However, there are many highly qualified diverse candidates in Minnesota, and a diverse perspective can add much to the court. I hope the governor, who has generally made excellent judicial selections so far, will give give this serious consideration as he mulls whom to put on the high court.

In August I mentioned how Dorsey & Whitney was rated a good place for women to work.

Turns out Dorsey is gay-friendly, too.

The Minneapolis law firm scored a perfect 100 on the Corporate Equality Index, a report card on GLBT inclusiveness released last month from the Human Rights Campaign Foundation.

The survey rates the nation's leading businesses and AMLAW 200 firms on a variety of criteria, such as diversity training and domestic partner benefits.

Faegre & Benson also received a perfect score. Another local firm on the list was Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi in Minneapolis, which scored a slightly lower 93 after losing points in the "has employer-supported employee resource group or firm-wide diversity council" category.

Here's how other Minnesota businesses scored:

3M Maplewood — 85
Alliant Techsystems Edina — 65
Allianz Life Insurance Golden Valley — 100
Ameriprise Financial Minneapolis — 100
Best Buy Richfield — 100
Cargill Wayzata — 100
Carlson Minnetonka — 100
General Mills Golden Valley — 100
Imation Oakdale — 93
Land O’Lakes Arden Hills — 53
Medtronic Fridley — 85
Northwest Airlines Eagan — 85
Supervalu Eden Prairie — 100
Target Minneapolis — 80
Thomson Eagan — 95
Travelers St. Paul — 50
U.S. Bancorp Minneapolis — 100
Xcel Energy Minneapolis — 60

A .pdf of the complete 2008 Corporate Equality Index is available here.