To Increase Diversity, Law Firms Focus on Pipeline

Pictured above: A student writes ‘208 Days,’ the length of a new Munger Tolles & Olson fellowship program that supports diverse law school applicants.

Two years ago, Athena Ullah was working in a warehouse on the outskirts of Los Angeles and scraping by on government assistance despite holding a master’s degree in city planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

“I was holding a box cutter and walking to a grocery distribution warehouse with an MIT degree,” said Ullah, who had applied for 137 jobs at law firms, government and corporations, before coming up empty-handed, and deciding to sell her only asset: a 2004 Volvo sedan ...