For the Women, By the Women — UWL and UBLSA’s First Annual Women of Color in Law Panel

On Thursday, Nov. 16th, Undergraduate Women in Law and Undergraduate Black Law Student Association co-sponsored both organizations’ inaugural Women of Color in Law panel. The event was held in the Student Health and Wellness building amid pink tablecloths, hot food pans filled with Royalty Eats soul food, and light jazz music. This panel, which should be the first of many, marked a successful student-led attempt to create an intersectional network among lawyers and prospective law students at the University of Virginia.

Asia Harford, UWL’s Vice President of External Affairs, opened the event with a welcoming speech. “What our speakers have to say goes beyond law,” she remarked. “It applies to the very nature of what we as students are here for — being oneself, following one’s passions and trying to contribute to the world in the best way possible.” 

Charity Warren, one of UWL’s Chairs for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for UWL, introduced the speakers, stating that “...the significance of tonight’s event lies in its mission to amplify voices of underrepresented groups.” The event not only uplifted the voices of women of color in law, but it unintentionally had four panelists from the public service sector, a branch of law that is often overlooked in law school recruitment. 

Moriah Wilkins, a Fair Housing Staff Attorney at Housing Opportunities Made Equal of Virginia, Inc. and a graduate of Northeastern Law School, began as a contractor for the Department of Justice. She was helping crack down on white collar crime, where she recalls defendants having legal teams consisting of around twenty lawyers at times. She began to wonder, however, “Who’s advocating for the people who don’t have anywhere to live, that are having mental health crises, who are begging for a sandwich or money just to survive?” For Wilkins, “Housing is the foundation of everybody's lives,” and, thus, ensuring fair and equitable housing is the focus of her law career.

Tanishka Cruz graduated from  Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law. When Cruz began practicing in the Charlottesville area, she noticed a lack of capacity for immigration cases in the city. This, along with her family’s own immigration story, inspired her to begin her own practice, Cruz Law PLLC, which now attracts clients from all over Virginia. 

When Elaine Poon was studying law at Emory University School of Law, she saw the complete failure of the government to adequately respond to the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina. Wanting to be a part of improving the infrastructure that aids those who most need it, Poon is now the deputy director of advocacy at the Legal Aid Justice Center in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Lastly, Annie Kim is a professor at the University’s School of Law and director of the Program in Law and Public Service. Before becoming a professor, she practiced local government law, interacting with helping school boards, counties and fire departments. She enjoyed “helping educators and public officials solve their problems through a legal lens,” which is further exemplified in her current work as a professor and director at the University, where she advises students to help them enter public service careers.

The panel questions were headed by UWL’s DEI Chairs, Warren and Sayidana Escoffery. When asked about the challenges of being women of color in law, each panelist spoke to feeling somewhat undervalued or out of place. 

“A lot of people would make me show my bar card — even though I’m in a full suit, they don’t believe that I was an attorney,” Wilkins said. “Maybe because I’m Black, maybe because I’m a woman, maybe because I’m both.” To her point, a major reason for black women lawyer’s abnormally high attrition rates is having to face bias and stereotyping. 

Poon spoke to an opposite set of stereotypes, in which her being Asian gave her, as she puts it, “the benefit of doubt” among mostly white, male colleagues over her other non-white colleagues due the myth of the “model minority.” Poon declared, “I’ve been thinking a lot about my obligation to solidarity,” speaking to the need for support among minority lawyers to combat attrition.

Additionally, both Cruz and Kim spoke to gender-based discrimination in the workplace. Cruz had potential employers advise her to keep any talk of motherhood and marriage to a minimum in job interviews while Kim stated that she would often get mistaken for a high school or college student at the start of her career because she was a “small…very young-looking Asian woman.” Kim noted the progress that has been made, however, as law firms and law schools get increasingly more diverse.

Escoffery and Warren also opened the panel up to audience’s questions, and the panelists gave valuable advice for those looking to study and practice law. 

Cruz told those in attendance to “push past your comfort zone in law school. That’s something that I didn’t do which I regret.” She further emphasized careful consideration of programs within law schools, as some are more theory-heavy than others. In her own law school experience, for instance, she participated in a co-op program that allowed her to work at an immigration firm for an entire semester.

Wilkins had similar advice, telling students to look at the classes offered and talk to the admissions office to figure out “[...]what the flavor is of that law school.” When asked why she chose Northeastern specifically, Wilkins stated, “I wanted to be in a space where they were intentional about breaking that barrier [of being predominantly white] and being more inclusive.” Continuing on, “I felt like my law school created a great environment where I felt like I was heard and they took me very seriously when I brought up issues to the administration.”

As students asked more questions, the panelists spoke to different academic hardships such as burnout and setting boundaries within their personal and professional lives. Wilkins jokingly asserted, “I get my rest — I don’t know what y’all do,” underscoring the importance of mental health. Kim also spoke to resting and focusing on hobbies, such as poetry — she has written two poetry books while practicing law. 

Another hardship that was discussed was intentionality choosing when, where and how to study law. Gap years were emphasized by Kim, stating that taking a year or more off after finishing undergraduate school not only allows for work experience, but allows students the opportunity to “realize things,” like which area of law they want to study — or if they want to study law at all. 

Within their professional lives, the panelists also face unique challenges such as choosing cases. “You don’t want to turn anyone away, but you don’t want to be under water trying to advocate for people,” Wilkins said. 

Cruz echoed the desire to help everyone, which often is not feasible — “The hardest counsel is the person who’s been here for 30 years, has been paying taxes every single year, and is looking at me from across the table and saying, ‘So what can I apply for?’ and I have nothing to provide for them,” she told the audience.

Despite balancing such busy schedules, however, all four panelists are involved in incredible advocacy work outside of their legal professions. 

Poon works to change the predominantly white male field of law in her work on the Judiciary Candidate Evaluation Committee, where she looks to recruit more people of color to be judges. Kim cited the Roadmap Scholars Initiative as a University resource that should be taken advantage of — it is a month-long paid opportunity to take simulated law courses, receive guidance on the law school applications process and visit legal firms and nonprofits alike. Wilkins proactively mentors women of color, providing guidance with resumes, personal statements and Law School Admissions Test prep. Cruz helped co-teach the University’s Immigration Law Clinic and is currently involved with efforts to educate high school students, first generation students and undocumented parents about the college application process and federal aid applications like FAFSA. As these women’s advocacy shows and as Wilkins put it best, “The institution has a lot of power, but the people have a lot of power too.”

The event closed with remarks from Warren along with cards and flowers being handed out to each panelist as a final token of gratitude.

Such an impressive panel does not simply come out of thin air, however. This panel was the months-long work of Harford, Warren and Escoffery — all fourth years in the College of Arts and Sciences. UWL was co-founded by University alumni Alexis Foster and Mary Withycombe in 2021, and “it was created to be a safe haven for pre-law students here,” Escoffery told us. “I really enjoy the support that we give each other — the friendship and sisterhood — but also the professional development. The connections that we are able to make through UWL is really impactful.” 

Noticing a gap in the intersectional aspect of UWL’s networking, however, Warren and Escoffery proposed a panel dedicated to such intersections of race, class, gender, sexuality, and law. Logistically, the panel took a lot of leadership and networking — “Originally, we met with some DEI offices within the [College] and we got a lot of feedback on how we can reach out to other schools within the University to get funding, so we sent letters to try to get [funding],” Harford said. The team was able to secure funding from the College’s DEI offices along with College Council. 

“In terms of reaching out to speakers, we were really focused on trying to make sure everyone was represented.” There was difficulty within finding a Latinx lawyer in particular, Harford noticed, “because Charlottesville just doesn’t really have a lot of that representation.” Intersectionality was intentional in a lot of the planning, like booking a Black woman-owned catering company, but it was also unintentional in many ways as Warren noticed that most of the people that they talked to about funding were black women. As Escoffery remarked, “The event was by black women, for women of color.”

The planning for the event was an overall team effort, with members from both organizations pitching in to make the night a success. And it was, with audience member Salone Raheja stating that the event confirmed that she wanted to go to law school, and that she was “really glad to foster a community space...to talk about the issues that really matter to us as women of color.”

Organizations like UWL and UBLSA offer extensive opportunities for students considering law, but also for those who are already dedicated to going to law school. Kendall Johnson, the current President of UBLSA, stated, “Events like this hone in why I love UBLSA so much — it’s just a really good, welcoming community of people who are working to make the legal field a more diverse and equitable place.” Regarding UBLSA’s goals for the upcoming semester, Johnson is focused on increasing the opportunities for pre-law students’ exposure to different types of law, noting more events like the panel and law school trips as potential future projects.

When asked why they want to pursue a law profession, Warren remarked that family was a major motivator in her interest in law, much like Cruz, stating, “What really solidified [being a lawyer] for me was that my uncle and grandfather were part of the Innocence Project.” 

Likewise, Lila Edmonds, Publicity Committee Chair for UBLSA, declared that she chose law to help others — “[The legal field] is something that people encounter not knowing how to go through it. That’s something that I want to mitigate for other people.” As for advice, both UWL and UBLSA members noted the importance of trusting oneself in the decision, whether that be taking a gap year or being intentional about school lists.

The most prominent theme underlying the entire panel, moreover, was that of authenticity. These attorneys refuse to be anyone else but themselves. When that potential employer told Cruz to keep her motherhood to a minimum, she said, “I don’t want to work for that employer — if I have to hide who I am, if I have to not be forthright about having a child and being a mother…that’s not someone I want to work for.”

These women define themselves, and in doing so, they invite others to do the same. The first annual Women of Color in Law event by UWL and UBLSA should be the first of many — this event not only exemplified the power of student organizations to highlight those who are all too often not showcased, but it inspired students, advised potential law school applicants and provided a place to applaud incredible women doing much-needed work right here in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Written by Shaleah Tolliver

Research by Gregory Perryman

Interviews Conducted by Gregory Perryman and Shaleah Tolliver

Editor’s Note: For disclosure, Asia Harford and Charity Warren are current members of The Virginia Black Review.