Summer Clerkship Program Description
The Colorado Pledge to Diversity Summer Clerkship Program (the “Program”) is sponsored by the Colorado Pledge to Diversity (the “Pledge”), a non-profit organization consisting of law firms and other participating constituents in the Colorado legal community that are signatories to the Colorado Pledge to Diversity.
The Program is made available to first year (or equivalent evening) students attending the University of Colorado Law School, the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, and the University of Wyoming College of Law.
PURPOSE
The Program’s primary purpose is educational. In furtherance of this purpose and given the historic under-representation of diverse lawyers in the legal profession, the Program seeks to provide a means for exposing diverse law students to opportunities in the legal profession and vice versa. The objective is to establish a vehicle through which participation of diverse students in clerkship programs is increased, with the long-term goal of increasing hiring of diverse students.
More specifically, the Program seeks to:
- Expose diverse law students to the work, requirements, and culture of law firms and legal departments of companies and other organizations;
- Help diverse law students develop professional skills, confidence, and resume credentials, and to make professional contacts for the future;
- Encourage diverse law students to consider law firm and company legal department opportunities in their future career planning; and
- Introduce members of the Pledge to talented students and to demonstrate that participating students, as well as other similarly qualified students, can successfully meet the demands of law practice.
Sponsor
The Program is sponsored by the Colorado Pledge to Diversity (the “Pledge”), a Colorado non-profit organization whose members are law firms, non-profit organizations, and legal departments of various corporate entities that are signatories to the Pledge.
Students
Students may be eligible to participate in the Program from diverse backgrounds that have been traditionally under-represented in the practice of law. These
include law students who are ethnic, racial, or religious minorities, students with disabilities, and/or gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender students.
In addition, students must have completed the equivalent of the first year of full-time law study at either the University of Colorado School of Law or the University of Denver Sturm College of Law by the summer in which they seek employment and must have achieved a grade point average of at least 2.85 to satisfy the minimum academic eligibility criteria of the Program. Students who have achieved a grade point average between 2.20 and 2.85 may be eligible to participate in the Program, at the sole discretion of the Pledge. Students who
submit transcripts that do not reflect grades from all classes taken in the most recently completed semester are required to provide an updated transcript to the
Program as soon as those grades become available.
Employers
Signatories to the Pledge that have formal summer clerkship programs or that choose to offer law-related clerkships within Colorado agree to hire, train, and supervise at least one summer clerk through the Program.
Hiring Employers denoted with a *
