About
Touro Law Students Selected as Diversity Bar Fellows
May 16, 2023Touro Law Center is pleased to announce that four students received diversity bar fellowships this year. Vivian Connor will be placed at BNY Mellon and Allen Frazier will be placed at Gapgemini as New York City Bar Association Diversity Fellows. Mackenzie Crabbe will be placed at Certilman Balin and Sherica Smith will be placed at Westerman Ball as Long Island Legal Diversity Fellows.
“These diversity fellowships are highly competitive and rigorous,” stated Dean Elena Langan. “These students should be celebrated for their selection. I know they will serve as great ambassadors for Touro Law while gaining valuable hands-on experience at each of their respective placements.”
The New York City Bar Association’s Committee on Recruitment and Retention of Lawyers has been the proud sponsor of the City Bar's Diversity Fellowship Program since 1991. During the past 32 years, more than 300 diverse and talented first-year law students from eleven New York City area law schools have been given a rare and valuable opportunity: to spend their 1L summer in a law firm, or corporate or government legal department to better prepare them for careers in the law. The goal of the program is to provide first-year law students from underrepresented populations the chance to spend a summer in some of New York’s most exciting legal environments.
The selection criteria for Program Fellows are demanding, including legal writing requirements, preparation of personal statements and interviews by a faculty-dominated screening committee and then, if selected by that committee, interviews again by a panel of attorneys and other school representatives. The interviewing panel also reviews each candidate's undergraduate and law school transcripts, resume, personal statement and legal writing sample. Only those who pass this final hurdle are assigned to a participating employer.
The Long Island Legal Diversity Fellowship Program seeks to increase diversity in the legal profession in the Nassau and Suffolk County areas by attracting first-year full-time or second-year part-time law students from under-represented groups within the legal profession to work in paid summer positions with Nassau and Suffolk County law firms.
In addition to a paid position with a Nassau or Suffolk County law firm where students gain real-world legal experience, students will network with judges, bar association leaders and members, and fellow Program participants to develop meaningful connections with the Nassau and Suffolk County legal communities.
The Long Island Legal Diversity Fellowship Program is supported by the Amistad Long Island Black Bar Association, Long Island Hispanic Bar Association, Nassau County Bar Association, and Suffolk County Bar Association.
XXX
Touro University Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center is located adjacent to both a state and a federal courthouse in Central Islip, New York. Touro Law’s proximity to the courthouses, coupled with programming developed to integrate the courtroom into the classroom, provide a one-of-a kind learning experience for law students, combining a rigorous curriculum taught by expert faculty with a practical courtroom experience. Touro Law is dedicated to providing hands-on learning that enables students to gain experience while offering much-needed legal services in the community.
Touro Law, which has an alumni base of more than 6,500, offers full- and part-time JD programs where students can earn a degree in 2, 3 or 4 years and provides four areas of concentration Additionally, Touro offers a hybrid, four-year FlexTime JD Program combining online and on campus learning. Touro Law offers several dual degree programs and graduate law programs for US and foreign law graduates. Touro Law Center is part of Touro University.
Touro University
Touro University is a system of non-profit institutions of higher and professional education chartered in 1970. Touro was founded primarily to enrich the Jewish heritage and to serve the larger American and global community. Approximately 19,000 students are currently enrolled at Touro University’s various schools and divisions, which encompass 35 campuses and locations in New York, California, Nevada, Illinois, Berlin, Jerusalem and Moscow. New York Medical College; Touro University California and Touro University Nevada; Touro University Worldwide and its Touro College Los Angeles division; as well as Hebrew Theological College in Skokie, Illinois are separately accredited institutions within the Touro University system. For more information, visit www.touro.edu.
Patti Desrochers
Director of Communications
pattid@tourolaw.edu
(631) 761-7062