The UH Law Center hosts the Black and Hispanic pre-law conferences Friday and Saturday designed to provide African American and Hispanic lawyers information, resources and contacts needed to succeed in law school.
The seminars will feature legal professionals and nationally recognized keynote speakers such as founder of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard Law School Charles T. Ogletree Jr. and former Texas Rep. and potential Houston mayor Sylvester Turner of Barnes & Turner LLP in Houston.
“This year, the conference has increased its targeted audience by launching the National Hispanic Pre-Law Conference,” Dean and professor of law at the UHLC Leonard Baynes said. “This joint conference promises to be as informative, if not more so, than before.”
Traci Gibson is a chair of the Rocky Mountain region of The National Black Law Students Association and second year law student at UHLC.
She will be speaking at the event about life as a black law student, how to navigate the challenges of prejudice and how to contribute to the law school community in a positive manner.
“Students should join us for this discussion as well as the others because this a free opportunity for pre-law students to access an expansive network of legal professionals from across the nation,” Gibson said. “There will be discussions to cover all aspects of law school such as admissions, financing your legal education, maximizing your experience, work-life balance and much more.”
The Law Center is using this event to promote its Pre-Law Pipeline Program — a program started by Baynes and designed to attract and encourage undergraduate students from low income, first generation and underrepresented backgrounds to pursue legal careers.
“Its overarching goal is to increase the caliber of underrepresented, first generation and low income college students who are ready to apply in the law school making their law school admissions applications more attractive to the most competitive law schools,” Baynes said.
