Justice Speeches

Chief Justice Eric Brown

Law & Leadership Institute Faculty

June 17, 2010

Carl, thank you for inviting me to meet with the faculty of the Law and Leadership Institute, and I also wish to commend you for your work with the Institute.

You have a great many demands on your time: you're a partner at a prestigious law firm, you're a family man, and you graciously give your time to helping to improve the prospects of a new generation of law students and soon-to-be-attorneys. Thank you for your help in this important effort.

The likelihood of success of this effort has been greatly enhanced by the generous support of the Ohio State Bar Foundation and the Law School Admissions Council. Steve Chappelear, thank you for recognizing the importance of diversity.

I also wish to thank Nancy Rogers for her vision and guiding hand. I know that Chief Justice Moyer was deeply appreciative of when Nancy first suggested this program several years ago at the Bench Bar Deans Conference. Great ideas start somewhere. This one started with Nancy.

I also wish to thank Maxine Thomas, who some of you will meet later today. Maxine turned a dream into reality through her work as the first executive director of the Law and Leadership Institute. I cannot overstate her contributions.

And Hope Sharett, congratulations on being hired as the new executive director. Your background in the legal profession, combined with your energy and direction, will ensure that a new and diverse generation of attorneys will soon join our profession.

I also wish to thank all of you for serving on the faculty of the Law and Leadership Institute.

And in a broader sense, thank you for participating in a program that will make a fundamental change in the legal profession. Your effort this summer will change the face of our profession.

Think I'm overstating the potential of the Law and Leadership Institute?

Think of this.

In the 1990s, the banking industry found itself near the limits of market saturation. There was almost no growth in the number of new checking and savings accounts.

There was little "new business." Growth was flattening out.

By the way, this was before financial institutions began taking on the risky mortgages that led to the recent problems, so for a minute, forget about the mortgage side of the business. I'm talking about basic checking and savings accounts, perhaps a few offerings of credit cards.

At about this time Society Bank in Cleveland—the bank we now know as Key Bank—started an aggressive effort to hire, retain and promote minorities. They hired minorities from non-banking sectors and gave all employees more training—not just about minority issues.

The goal was simple: to gain new perspectives on old problems, to hear new ideas by increasing the diversity of the workforce.

It worked.

One of the first signs of success took place on the near Westside of Cleveland, an area of many immigrant families, with an influx of Latinos and Mexican immigrants.

There's an ATM machine right across the street from the Westside Market, right across Lorain Avenue. It's right across from Johnnie Hot Dog. It's an ATM that I have used. It was like a thousand other ATMs at the time; a great source of quick cash—if you happened to speak English.

Today, of course, we begin most every ATM transaction by making a choice of the language we want to use. Pretty common now, but not 15, 20 years ago.

Until one day, a Latino employee suggested making the ATM bilingual—opening up the machine to the changing population in that neighborhood.

ATM transactions shot up, and the opening of new bank accounts by Spanish speaking customers soon followed. It was a hit with the neighborhood and the bottom line of Society bank.

You see, diversity makes a difference—and not only in the financial sector. It will make a difference in the legal community as well. For courts to have the trust and confidence of the people, we must better reflect those we serve.

And you are part of making it happen.

You will be responsible for opening the path to law school and a career in the legal profession for thousands of young people who otherwise would not have thought it possible.

Generations of minority children have been told either that the legal profession is off limits to them, or they were never introduced to the possibility of career in the law.

African Americans represent 3.7 percent of the registered attorneys in Ohio, while they comprise 12.6 percent of the population. Asian Americans are 1.8 percent of the population and only one percent of the lawyers, and Latinos are 2.3 percent of the population and only less than one percent of the profession. If we look at urban areas, the numbers are much worse.

Studies have concluded that many of our minority students have not received the training or the support necessary for them to succeed in law school. If they get into law school unprepared, many will drop out.

Teaching students good study habits, writing skills and complex thinking places them on the path to a successful college experience—and success in law school.

The Law and Leadership Institute will help improve minority representation in colleges, in law schools and soon it will increase the number of minorities who are lawyers and judges. We will all benefit when this program reaches its goals.

Thank you for taking the time this summer to work with students attending the Law and Leadership Institute. And thank you for helping to make a difference in the legal profession.