The American Bar Association has undertaken to raise a million dollars for law school scholarships for minority students, the group's Virgin Islands liaison reports.
St. Thomas attorney Tom Bolt, the V.I. Bar Association delegate to 400,000-member national body, said the creation of the scholarship fund was announced at the ABA's annual meeting in Atlanta last week.
In an address at the meeting, Bolt said, ABA president Bill Paul noted that about 30 percent of the population of the United States consists of persons of color, and the percentage is growing. In contrast, Paul said, the legal profession is 92 percent white.
"The legal profession is the connecting link between government and the rule of law," Paul stated. "If the connecting link is not reflective of all of society, people will lose respect for the rule of law."
According to Bolt, the ABA is making diversity in the legal profession a key theme for the coming year.
He noted that the V.I. Bar Association awards scholarships to local law students and said he hoped the ABA's Legal Opportunity Scholarship Fund would provide an additional resource for Virgin Islands young people aspiring to a career in the law.