“Owu obodo ni‘ne j‘agbakoro aka a zu nwata.” It takes a whole village to raise a child. “The child” in the Nigerian proverb above can be viewed as analogous to a law student; “the village” as analogous to a law school; and the act of “raising” the law student as analogous to a legal education. The number of diverse parties involved in educating the law student is directly proportional to how well the law student is educated as a legal professional. My use of ‘legal professional’ here is limited to one who is able to create laws and practice law; and in speaking of ‘diverse parties’ I am referring to the different perspectives on any given legal issue that the law student is exposed to. I believe that diversity can be defined as the amount of exposure one has to different perspectives on a given issue and the appreciation of that exposure. Diversity is important in the legal profession because it is vital to the creation of laws and the practice of law.
The vitality of a lawful and democratic society is based on the cooperation among all of the individuals who are part of the society or group. This cooperation leads to the recognition of diversity because all of the individuals in the group will not always have the same perspective on every issue. This recognition of diversity among the group members leads to the creation of laws that govern how they interact with each other to guarantee basic individual rights. For example, the United States Bill of Rights recognizes diversity in limiting the powers of the federal government and protecting the rights of all citizens, residents, and visitors on US territory. Those who are educated in creating laws must take diversity into account in order to ensure that the laws they create are just and applicable to all of the members of society; in effect, the law is always created in a social context. Diversity is a vital component in the process of creating laws and without it laws cannot be applicably created and put into practice.
The practice of law is grounded in being able to deal with complex issues. Diversity is vital to the practice of law because it leverages the legal professional’s ability to deal with complex issues. For example, in my early childhood years living in a rural village outside the city of Port Harcourt (Rivers State, Nigeria), state lawmakers were faced with the issue of whether or not to permit Shell Oil to set up rigs next to our river system. They set up a council to tackle the issue but the council only included Shell representatives and the state lawmakers themselves. The council decided to allow Shell to set up the rigs without much consideration of views from members of the local community and in turn many in the village relocated. Ultimately, Shell could not find local workers to sustain some of its workload and chose to relocate as well. The lack of diversity in the council meant that they also lacked the ability to assess how their decision would affect the diverse needs of the whole village.
It truly does take a whole village to properly raise a child. The act of raising a child to adulthood is quite similar to educating a law student to become a legal professional. The amount of exposure the law student has to different perspectives on any given legal issue, the better equipped the student will be in fulfilling her or his duties as a legal professional. If we agree that diversity can be understood as the exposure one has to different perspectives and the appreciation of that exposure, then we must also agree that diversity is important in the legal profession.
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