Webinar-Being a Native Lawyer: Obstacles and Opportunities
Being a Native Lawyer: Obstacles and Opportunities
June 24, 2020
10:00 - 11:30 a.m.
Description
Join our expert panel of Native American attorneys as they discuss barriers and opportunities facing Native American lawyers, including their organizations' efforts and their own personal experiences.
The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples recognizes Indigenous people's right to fully participate in the political, legal, economic, social, and cultural life of the state. Yet Native Americans remain shockingly underrepresented in the legal field, beginning from law school and continuing through their careers at firms, public agencies, non-governmental organizations, and the judiciary. The distinction is particularly stark when it comes to leadership positions: a National Native American Bar Association 2015 study noted only three Native Americans have ever been appointed federal district court judges, only three ever appointed as U.S. Attorney, and only three have ever served as Dean as a law school. Native Americans face innumerable obstacles, but also notable opportunities, at every point in the career pipeline.
This begins long before law school, with encouraging Native children to pursue a legal profession from a young age, and continues with guiding prospective law students through the admissions process and ensuring they have the resources they need to succeed in law school. The professional community can make a difference by ensuring supportive workplaces that do not pigeonhole Native attorneys into stereotyped roles, and that supply meaningful professional development opportunities through mentors, sponsors, and challenging projects. All these efforts must encompass issues of representation, which necessarily include opportunities for advancement and achieving leadership positions. They must also address the implicit barriers to achievement, which challenge Native attorneys as both individuals and as a group. Even where Native Americans are successful, employers and professors often assume their practice areas of interest will be limited to federal Indian and tribal law.
Our expert panel will share their organizations' ongoing efforts as well as their personal experiences. Participants will face their own assumptions to gain a realistic understanding of the challenges Native American attorneys face, and opportunities for advancing Native American representation and success in the legal field. More importantly, non-Native participants will hear pragmatic actions they can take, in their own lives and practice, to be part of the solution, which will benefit the legal profession and our society as a whole.
Participants will:
• Gain greater understanding of the extent to which Native Americans are underrepresented in the legal profession and how this negatively impacts the field as a whole.
• Identify the barriers Native attorneys and prospective attorneys face in embarking on a legal career and succeeding in the profession.
• Non-Native participants gain greater sensitivity toward the obstacles and pressures their Native colleagues, students, and employees face. They will learn about tools they can use as allies in the workplace to assist Native American attorneys to succeed and grow in the profession, so they can take on more of the burden of breaking down these barriers.
• Identify and understand the factors influencing Native Americans’ motivations to attend law school, and the support systems—social, cultural, financial—needed to be successful in law school.
• Will be able to challenge assumptions about Native attorneys, including the widespread belief that Native American attorneys will, or should be, focused on practicing Indian and tribal law.
Speakers
Elizabeth Kronk Warner
Univ of Utah Quinney College of Law
Kathlene Rosier
Arizona State University College of Law
Mary Smith
Tyco International
Sponsor
American Bar Association, Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources