Bennett College, A&T to host Summit for aspiring lawyers in September

Are you interested in becoming a lawyer?  If so, you should make plans to attend the 4^th Annual National HBCU Pre-Law Summit & Law Expo 2017, being hosted by Bennett College and North Carolina A&T State University.

The Summit will be held on Friday, September 15, at Bennett’s campus inside the Global Learning Center, 521 Gorrell Street, and on Saturday, September 16, at A&T’s campus inside the Alumni-Foundation Event Center, 200 Benbow Road.

Additionally, on Thursday, September 14, participants have the option to tour North Carolina law schools, and on Sunday, September 17, participants have the option to go on an informal Greensboro Civil Rights/African-American History tour.

Founded by Evangeline M. Mitchell, Esq., Ed.M., the National HBCU Pre-Law Summit & Law Expo focuses on empowering HBCU students and graduates who are interested in attending law school and becoming lawyers by addressing the unique issues, concerns and challenges facing them.  Students and graduates from HBCUs are invited to meet and come together in Greensboro for the two-day, power-packed Summit that will expose them to game-changing information, resources and connections designed to help them achieve success in a demanding educational endeavor and tough field that is in need of diversity.

In short, the Summit will give students a chance to meet with lawyers and to learn relevant information they need to know before applying to law school.

The importance of the Summit cannot be understated.  It will include panel discussions on law school admission, the Law School Admission Test (LSAT), the law school experience, legal careers, the law degree and entrepreneurship – as well as workshops on the personal statement, the diversity statement and financing a legal education.

“When I was a student attending HBCU Prairie View A&M University many years ago, I did not know any law students or lawyers or have anyone to help me navigate the process of getting into law school,” Mitchell says in a written statement.  “The extent of my pre-law assistance was attending a couple of pre-law society events where I just picked up materials from law schools and did some practice LSAT questions one Saturday.

“Therefore, despite high grades, earning a 4.0 in my major and graduating with a magna cum laude distinction for a 3.8+ GPA, and doing what I thought were all of the ‘right’ things, I was still at a disadvantage and didn’t know it,” Mitchell continued. “As a result, I almost didn’t get into law school…”

Mitchell eventually earned her Doctorate of Jurisprudence from the University of Iowa College of Law. She also has a Masters of Education with a concentration in Administration, Planning and Social Policy from the Harvard University Graduate School of Education.  In part because of what she endured prior to getting into law school, Mitchell vowed to do everything she could to help others with similar aspirations get the information they need; thus she created the National HBCU Pre-Law Summit & Law Expo.

This year’s Summit will include keynote speakers from many renowned law professionals, including Emily M. Dickens, Esq., Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Chief Relationship Officer of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund; Dr. Aaron N. Taylor, Esq., Senior Vice President, Executive Director, Center for Legal Education Excellence, AccessLex Institute; and Demetra L. Liggins, Esq., Partner, Thompson Knight and Co-Founder, Corporate Homie.

There will also be special, unprecedented talks featuring deans from HBCU law schools, including John K. Pierre, Esq., M.S., Chancellor and Vanue B. Lacour Endowed Professor of Law, Southern University Law Center; Phyllis Craig-Taylor, Esq., LL.M., Dean and Professor of Law at North Carolina Central University; and Reginald McGahee, Esq., Associate Dean of Student Affairs and Admissions, Howard University School of Law, among others. The panel of HBCU deans will be moderated by Dr. Jamal Watson, Executive Editor of Diverse Issues in Higher Education.

Dr. Gwendolyn M. Bookman, Bennett’s Interim Dean of the Division of Arts and Sciences, said she’s excited about the Summit and the impact it can have on Bennett students and those from other area colleges and universities.

“Bennett students and faculty advisers have participated in the Summit for several years and we have found it to be one of the most important conferences for our pre-law students to attend,” Bookman said.

For more information about the 4^th Annual National HBCU Pre-Law Summit & Law Expo 2017, please contact Dr. Bookman at 336.517.2106 or gbookman@bennett.edu.