Yale Law School Celebrates Diverse Alumni Networks

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More than 200 Yale Law School alumni, students, and admitted students attended diversity receptions in New York City and Washington, DC in July. Student affinity groups represented included the Black Law Students Association (BLSA), the Latinx Law Students Association (LLSA), OutLaws (LGBTQ Organization), the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association (APALSA), Middle Eastern and North African Law Students Association (MENALSA), Native American Law Students Association (NALSA), and the South Asian Law Students Association (SALSA).

In March 2015, then-Dean Robert C. Post ’77 convened a diversity committee that made a number of recommendations to help grow and strengthen the School’s commitment to creating an inclusive community that welcomed historically under-represented groups and individuals. Among the list of suggestions was a greater encouragement of alumni support networks for the School’s affinity student group members. The Law School piloted summer receptions in 2016 with the goal of intersectional support and interaction between newly admitted students, current students, alumni, and faculty—and the events were received with great enthusiasm.

The Offices of Alumni Affairs and Student Affairs worked with Sharon Brooks ’00, special advisor to the dean for strategic engagement, as well as the student groups themselves, to host this year’s receptions. The events occurred on July 11 in New York City and July 13 in Washington, DC.

Dean Heather Gerken, in her vision for the future of the Law School, has listed such engagement of alumni as one of the major priorities of her deanship.