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Clinical Professor Jesse McCoy has been named faculty director of Duke Law School’s PreLaw Fellowship Program, a summer residential experience that introduces rising college sophomores and juniors from underrepresented backgrounds to law school and the legal profession.

“I love having the opportunity to help mold the next generation of future attorneys, and to help people access the things they dream about,” said McCoy, who has taught Property Law in the program for the past five years.

“I know from experience [that] the process has historically been very difficult, particularly for people from certain marginalized communities. So that’s what we’re trying to provide students – the ability to imagine that it’s possible and a realistic view of what needs to be done to get there.”

McCoy, supervising attorney for the Civil Justice Clinic, succeeds Ebony Bryant, former director of diversity initiatives for Duke Law who is now director of diversity and inclusion for the North Carolina Bar Association.

The PreLaw Fellowship Program, which will be held in June, aims to attract candidates from historically underrepresented populations with a special focus on students attending historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and members of the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACUs), primarily in the southeast. It annually enrolls 20 to 25 students for four weeks of on-campus activities that often include mini-courses taught by Duke Law faculty, information about LSAT preparation, trips to other Triangle-area law schools, visits to law firms, and tours of local and state appellate courthouses.

“We teach the things that people need to understand when they embark on a journey toward the legal profession, such as the fundamentals of the application process and what law school is like once you get here,” McCoy said.

“By the end of the program, we will have given the students the opportunity to see how law school works, what law school classes are like, how to get into law school, how to be successful in law school, and ultimately what happens after law school, once you pass the bar and become an attorney.”

In recent years law firms have increased their summer class diversity and those gains are starting to pay off in improved representation among associates at all levels. The number of Black law firm associates rose to 5.8% of all associates in 2022, at 0.6 percentage points the largest gain ever, according to the National Association for Law Placement’s 2022 Report on Diversity. Latinx attorneys made up 6.6% of all associates, up 0.4 percentage points from 2021.

However, those numbers lag diversity among law school enrollees. Students identifying themselves either solely or partly as Black have made up 10% of all law students, on average, for the past three years, and students identifying themselves either solely or partly as Latinx or Hispanic have comprised 14.4% of all law students, according to data released in December by the American Bar Association.

“Historically, law school was not designed to be diverse. Law school was designed to be exclusive. What we’re trying to do is level the playing field and make it more equal,” McCoy said.

“We’re looking for students with not just some degree of academic prowess, but also good life stories – students who are overcoming obstacles and are going to appreciate and take advantage of this opportunity.”

After they finish the program, alumni often stay in contact throughout their professional lives, McCoy said, and staff continue to serve as a resource even to those who choose to pursue a different profession.

“The PreLaw Fellowship Program historically has been a very good networking opportunity for people to meet each other and have an experience together, and those bonds carry on and transcend beyond the program.”

The PreLaw Fellowship Program will run this year from June 4 to June 30 at Duke Law School. The application deadline is Friday, March 3. Interested college students can apply at law.duke.edu/prelawfellowship.