By Craig Anderson

There’s no shortage of ideas on how to increase diversity among judges and attorneys in Delaware.

Implementing programs to bolster student awareness of the field is one way to do so, according to Delaware Bar and Bench Diversity Project findings and recommendations released last week.

According to Delaware Supreme Court Chief Justice Collins J. Seitz, “We should be educating kids about how a legal career is something they should pursue, how it’s a very exciting and stimulating career and basically promote the legal career as a profession because I don’t think we do a very good job in any of the educational institutions.”

Delaware Supreme Court Justice Tamika Reeves-Montgomery agreed.

“The exciting thing about this is, we’re not just focused on lawyers in Delaware who might be able to come sit on the bench, but we’re literally going all the way back to our young Delaware citizens entering elementary, middle, high school,” said Justice Reeves-Montgomery, the first African American to serve in the post.

“We’re focused on figuring out, how do we keep them interested and involved? How do we make sure we’re being inclusive in our bench and bar, so we can increase the representation?”

One aim, listed in the 108-page report, is to create law-related programs akin to the Minority Engineering Regional Incentive Training course “to stimulate underrepresented groups’ interest in law and the legal profession.”

Other recommendations include:

• Collect racial and ethnic data of bar candidates and attorneys in the bar exam and admission process.
• Establish coordinated pathways to admission with students who attend Delaware State University and other external institutions and organizations that serve significant numbers of potential law school applicants from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups.
• Support initiatives of other institutions/agencies that have a direct impact on the diversity of the bench and bar in Delaware (i.e., the new law school at Delaware State University).
• Take steps to reduce implicit bias and identity threats in the court environment.
• Establish a diversity, equity and inclusion coordinator at the Supreme Court and eventually all courts.
• Promote diversity recruitment at major law firms and the Attorney General’s Office, traditional elements of the pipeline.

And what will represent success?

“What will tell us if we’ve succeeded is that the Delaware bench and bar reflects the greater community of the state of Delaware, and once we can reach that level of diversity in the legal profession, we’ll know we’ve succeeded,” Chief Justice Seitz said.

“It’s going to take a while to do that, but the ultimate goal of all this work is to make sure ... the legal profession is representative of the people we serve.”

Chief Justice Seitz and Justice Reeves-Montgomery chaired the committee that produced the report, found here. They were part of a diverse group of contributors.

“We purposefully made sure that the people that prepared this report represented the cross section of the state of Delaware,” Chief Justice Seitz said.

Other members of the group included Jen Bechel-Guzzo, University of Delaware associate vice president and deputy general counsel; Kimeu Boynton, Delaware State University assistant professor; Paige Chapman, Office of Defense Services assistant public defender; Doneene K. Damon, Richards, Layton & Finger president and director; Francis Gauthier, Legal Services Corp. of Delaware; Danielle Gibbs, chief legal counsel to Gov. John Carney; Renata L. Green-Streett, Superior Court judge; Natalie J. Haskins, Family Court judge; Kathy Jennings, Delaware attorney general; Gayle P. Lafferty, Administrative Office of the Courts state court administrator; Elizabeth Marchioni, Delaware State University professor; Kathaleen St. J. McCormick, Court of Chancery chancellor; Kathleen M. Miller, Delaware State Bar Association; Rae M. Mims, Court of Common Pleas judge; Maria Perez-Chambers, Justice of the Peace Court magistrate judge; Rodney Smolla, Widener University Delaware Law School dean; and Jennifer Wasson, Board of Bar Examiners chair.

While there’s no quantifying Delaware’s standing nationwide when it comes to bench and bar diversity, Chief Justice Seitz said, “I don’t think there are any rankings, but I can tell you this: Every state has a challenge in making sure their bench and bar is diverse and represents the population of their state.

“There isn’t a single state that isn’t focused on this problem right now.”

Justice Reeves-Montgomery echoed the thoughts.

“There’s some difficulty for Delaware, but frankly, across the country, with representation in the bench and bar. For a very long (time), we’ve not been a bench and bar that’s reflective of the community,” she said.

“We want to instill public trust in the legal system. We want (to) have young people to look at lawyers and judges (and) have a mirror to see themselves in those lawyers and judges.”