The City University of New York School of Law continues to build on its track record of serving underrepresented communities with its pipeline initiative.
In 2000, Laquesia Anguiano was finally on track to fulfill her life-long dream of becoming an attorney. As a wife and mother of four by her 22nd birthday, school had been put on hold, so going back that year to earn her bachelor’s had been challenging. Then it was time for law school.
After taking the LSAT, Anguiano applied to 10 schools and was denied by all of them. Determined, she took a Kaplan LSAT prep course, retook the LSAT and applied to three more schools; again, none accepted her.
One of those schools — the City University of New York School of Law — sent her a letter with tips to improve her application. She called for more advice. An admissions counselor told her about a new program that might be able to help. Later, in an e-mail from the school, help had arrived.
College graduates like Anguiano who don’t make it into any law school are given one more chance to prove themselves: an invitation to join the City University of New York School of Law’s Pipeline to Justice program. “I opened it and read. I was like, ‘Wow, are they serious, I still have a chance at law school?’” she remembers. “I was still shocked they sent me a letter to begin with. Just to know there was this program, and I could still go to law school … I was very excited.”
Pipeline to Justice is the brainchild of CUNY law school’s Associate Dean and
Professor Mary Lu Bilek and Dean Michelle Anderson. The program’s aims are twofold: the first is to prepare law candidates, who have not yet conquered the LSAT but are diligent in other areas of life, to retake the test and then succeed in law school; the second is to allow students from diverse and underrepresented backgrounds the chance to enter the legal field and serve their communities.
