Practicing Law Behind Enemy Lines, Tale #95: DEI Started Sooner Than You Think

As I was graduating from Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon a professor told me that, starting with the next incoming class, remedial writing classes were being mandated. Say what? Remedial? He told me that this was needed so that students would then be equipped to write legal briefs, something that was a necessity for lawyers. That was 1986. I was shocked and perplexed. After all, to be permitted to enroll in this expensive, private law school, a student must first graduate from high school, then graduate from college with a relatively high GPA and then obtain a high score on the Law School Admission Test (LSAT). Why would this law school accept students with low academic records and a low LSAT score?

THIS EXPLAINS WHY CURTIS WAS A STUDENT

There was one very important piece of information which the professor failed to mention. Indeed, perhaps he did not know that the law school was now accepting applications based on skin color, ethnicity, gender and other personal attributes instead of merit. This was the beginning of the disastrous “diversity, equity & inclusion” at Lewis & Clark which produced law school dropouts or graduates who couldn’t pass the bar exam or licensed attorneys who were incompetent.

THAT was likely the beginning that lead to Lewis & Clark Law School training Antifa terrorists. Indeed, JB Kim, Assistant Dean of Diversity & Academic Resources in March 2018 allowed Antifa thugs to shut down a presentation by an invited scholar, Dr. Christina Hoff Sommers. Of course, Oregon’s other two law schools have also lowered their standards in the name of DEI. Well over a decade ago the Oregon State Bar started licensing known illegal aliens. Two years ago Oregon eliminated the Bar Exam requirement for lawyers. Is this the direct result of lowering standards in the name of this racist ideology? SEE TWO ARTICLES LINKED BELOW

There is only one law school in the Greater Portland Area where I practiced for 34 years. In 2001 I hired a law clerk who was attending Lewis & Clark. Curtis happened to be Japanese-American. During the two months he pretended to work for me I struggled to train him. He could not draft a simple document on the computer because he did not know how to use a computer. My very smart college-aged goddaughter was visiting for two weeks. She spent time trying to teach him how to use the computer, to no avail. My legal secretary also tried to help him. Us three computer literate women were gobsmacked and mollywhopped!

I learned that it took him eight years to get through college. [He was age 28 when I hired him.] Lest you think there was a language problem, I hasten to add that his family came from a long line of Americans. Neither he nor his parents spoke Japanese. When I was out of the office on a Friday afternoon, he closed up the office, turned off the phone and left. It appeared that he knew that his skin color was the most important part of his “academic career.” The following Monday I fired him. As he was leaving he blamed me for his incompetence. “You were in court too much and didn’t spend enough time training me,” he declared.

A year or so later, Curtis dropped out of Lewis & Clark Law School.

1986 WAS ONLY THE BEGINNING OF THE DOWNFALL

Although Lewis & Clark Law School was enrolling students based upon Affirmative Action or DEI rules for two decades they apparently did not create a formal diversity department until 2007 which began with the Diversity Working Group which quickly morphed into the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Committee. This committee was responsible for fostering an environment that supports students, faculty, and staff from “historically marginalized” groups. What does that mean and who determines if a student belongs in such an imaginary group? The Lewis & Clark Board of Trustees quickly fell in line and formally approved “The Educational Benefits of Diversity,” a document affirming the college’s conviction that diversity provides an essential educational benefit when it does just the opposite. NOTE Section 2.3 of the Faculty Handbook.

The undergraduate school has a Dean of Diversity and Equity and the law school has an Assistant Dean of Diversity & Academic Resources.

DEI INFRASTRUCTURE RAISES TUITION COST FOR STUDENTS

Lewis & Clark Law School and the undergraduate school has such a tangled web of departments, employees and students pushing “diversity” over academic excellence that this writer had a hard time researching it. Perhaps THAT is the point! DEI initiatives are integrated across 16 different departments and committees “to manage” campus-wide culture and bias reporting, controlling what students can and cannot say, much like Oregon’s bias hotline. The undergraduate school has Dean of Diversity and Equity but it is unclear the number of staff members under her.

The law school’s Office of Inclusion and Multicultural Engagement (IME) has EIGHT staff member, including a director and an assistant director.^ What the hell does such a small department need both a director & assistant director? Employing people who can’t get real jobs? When did law schools become sheltered workshops? There is also a DEI Committee which consists of NINE members, including 7 faculty/administrators and 2 student representatives.

LEWIS & CLARK IS NOT THE ONLY LAW SCHOOL WHO LOWERED THEIR STANDARDS IN THE NAME OF “DIVERSITY, EQUITY & INCLUSION.”

If you need the services of a lawyer I strongly recommend either a lawyer of any ethnicity, color or “gender” who graduated from a law school before they fully implemented DEI, perhaps who graduated in the 1990s, or a white male lawyer who enrolled under racist DEI policies. Why a “white male lawyer?” Because he had to have a very high LSAT score and a high college GPA to compete for a seat against DEI enrollees.

Check me out on X @dianelgruber.

^The IME office currently lists 8 staff members. This team includes both professional staff and student coordinators: Professional Leadership: 2 staff members (Joann Zhang, Director, and Kamariah Hammonds, Assistant Director). Support Staff: 1 Graduate Assistant (Noemi Reyes). Student Coordinators: 5 student staff members serving as Marketing, Special Events, and Program Coordinators.