Proskauer Rose LLP

I recently participated in a panel at the New York City Bar Association geared towards prospective law students, and it felt like a full-circle moment. As I looked up from the dais, I realized I was sitting across from a painting of Justice Thurgood Marshall, the man whose life and legacy transformed my life. As a senior in high school, I had participated in the City Bar’s Thurgood Marshall Summer Law Internship Program, a dynamic summer internship program for underprivileged and underrepresented students. Throughout the summer, we interned at firms that partnered with the Program and attended events focused on networking, professional development, and the diverse employment opportunities that exist for lawyers. My summer with the Program shifted my vantage point from someone who knew little to nothing about the law to someone who was engrossed with the legal field, determined and assured that I was called to be a lawyer. I proudly share that I am the product of diversity pipeline programs because opportunities like those granted to me through this Program expanded my reality. For those of us who never imagined we could be lawyers, simply because we didn’t know the career path was a viable option, the intentional efforts and initiatives of diversity pipeline programs are instrumental in our development. The Thurgood Marshall Summer Law Internship Program allowed me to dream and see myself in a field that I once knew nothing about. I am no longer a high school intern but a law clerk starting out on my legal career. Anytime I walk through the doors of the City Bar, I am filled with gratitude. For me, it is a place where my life changed and my legal professional journey began and continues.