Guest Post: The Appellate Project

This is a guest post by Juvaria Khan, Founder of The Appellate Project.

Launched in September 2020, The Appellate Project (TAP) is the first organization focused on empowering law students of color to enter the appellate field. We are driven by a belief that our highest courts should reflect our communities, and we are excited to work with the appellate bar to make that belief a reality.

The need for diversity in the appellate bar

Appellate courts hear and decide cases that affect almost every aspect of our lives: our ability to vote, how we are policed, our religious freedom, the quality of our education, our workplaces, healthcare, immigration protections, and much more. The attorneys who argue these cases exert great influence as they shape, brief, and ultimately frame the issues before these courts. Although these cases affect all Americans—and, not infrequently, have a disproportionate impact on communities of color—there is a dearth of minority attorneys in the appellate field.

Although the decades since desegregation have allowed more people of color to pursue legal careers, systemic inequalities continue to create barriers to entry at the appellate level. Unlike trial-level work, appellate litigation has long been considered a specialized practice, reserved only for the most elite litigators, with the most successful among them often forming the pool from which judicial nominees are selected.

Barriers to entry start early on. Many students of color, especially those who are first-generation or from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, do not grow up in communities with lawyers, much less appellate lawyers. As a result, many of these students—unaware of the strict requirements needed to succeed in the appellate field—do not take the requisite steps to position themselves for a career in appellate work. Other students are discouraged from seeking appellate-related opportunities for a host of reasons. Some self-select out after not seeing many attorneys in the field who look like them. Others lack mentors or are discouraged by law schools that overlook them.

The result is a staggering lack of diversity in the appellate space. For the few attorneys of color who do pursue appellate work, this lack of diversity can create a difficult environment with implicit—and at times, explicit—biases. And the appellate field’s insular character can make networking opportunities particularly challenging.

This lack of diversity has serious consequences. It erodes trust in our highest courts, particularly for the communities most impacted and least represented. It signals to law students of color that these are spaces where they do not belong. And it means appellate courts are deciding matters of law without being informed by the full range of diverse perspectives and lived experiences that equal justice under law requires.

The Appellate Project

The Appellate Project aims to change that. Our Mentorship Program is the first national effort focused on empowering law students of color to pursue appellate work. We pair law students of color interested in appellate practice with mentors in the appellate field. We also provide students with appellate-focused resources throughout the year: clerkship support, networking opportunities with the appellate bar, skill-building workshops, guidance on appellate job opportunities, and more. We have been grateful to work with an incredibly passionate and diverse group of volunteers from the appellate bar who help make this work possible. The students in our inaugural class have already felt the impact of these efforts, and we look forward to continuing to grow as our resources expand.

We have also developed innovative appellate training opportunities, such as partnering with Howard University School of Law to bring an appellate focus to their historic Civil Rights Clinic. Taught by appellate attorneys Tiffany Wright and Ed Williams, students work on civil rights appellate cases that center the development of social justice issues. In the first two semesters of the Clinic, the students filed 10 appellate briefs in civil rights cases around the country, including to the United States Supreme Court.

If you know any law students of color who enjoy legal research and writing and may be interested in appellate work, please encourage them to apply to our Mentorship Program by September 6. More information, including a link to the application, is available here. This video also has more information.

Finally, as a new nonprofit our work is made possible thanks to our volunteers and donors. If you would like to donate, get involved as a sponsor, or work with our students, please visit our website. We look forward to working with you!