Minority & Diversity Clerkship Program
CELEBRATING 30 YEARS
Changing the Face of the Atlanta Legal Community
By G. Wayne Hillis, Parker, Hudson, Rainer & Dobbs LLP and
Curtis J. Martin II, Miller & Martin, PLLC
I
n 1985, long before diversity
and inclusion were the “hot”
and compelling topics that
they are today, the Atlanta
Bar Association, under the
leadership of then-president
Seaborn Jones, established
the Minority & Diversity
Clerkship
Program.
The
Minority & Diversity Clerkship
Program was created at a
time when the number of
associates and partners from
underrepresented minority groups in major Atlanta firms
was unacceptably low and had not increased significantly
in the previous ten years. Seaborn Jones and his fellow
leaders recognized that the lack of diversity in the Atlanta
legal community, especially at major Atlanta law firms, was
a critical problem, so the Minority & Diversity Clerkship
Program was created in order to address the issue.
number of minority and diverse attorneys in practice in
those and other law firms throughout Atlanta and the state
of Georgia.
The Minority & Diversity Clerkship Program was the first
such program in the country, and it has inspired other state
and local bar associati