May 29, 2024
FormanWatkins Hosts Fourth Annual Diversity Pipeline Program
The FormanWatkins Diversity Pipeline Program is a three-day program for Jackson State University Bob Owens Pre-Law Center and Tougaloo College Reuben V. Anderson Pre-Law Society students interested in pursuing careers as civil litigators. The Firm’s Jackson office welcomed Corrin Dixon, Tyshshia Frazier, Destiny Ivory, LaChassity Jackson, Markita Shell, Naya Singleton, Andreze Suggs-Ewing, Walter Townsend and Sha’Nyla Wilson as 2024 participants.
This year’s program included a presentation by career consultant Candie Simmons on business etiquette in the modern workplace, as well as seminars with FormanWatkins attorneys on “firm life,” the firm’s practice areas, civil litigation 101, and research and writing. The students also met with members of the firm’s Pro Bono, Recruiting, and Diversity & Inclusion committees. In an effort to best prepare the students for what to expect at law school, Karen Peairs with the University of Mississippi School of Law Career Center presented on law school admissions and experiences while firm attorneys provided a workshop on resume writing and interview best practices.
A special highlight and key component of the program was the opportunity for the students to engage with in-house counsel. These attorneys shared their personal accounts of pursuing careers in law, what life is like as in-house counsel of major corporations and how they work with FormanWatkins attorneys. The students were then invited to engage in Q&A.
The collective goal of the program is to provide students an up-close experience as to what life might be like as a civil litigator and provide them with the knowledge and tools to best pursue a career in law. This is the fourth year that FormanWatkins has conducted the program and later this summer, Precious Thompson, an alumni of the inaugural Pipeline class and current George Washington University School of Law 2L, will return to the firm for her second year as a clerk.
This program is facilitated annually by FormanWatkins Diversity & Inclusion committee member Malissa Wilson and included sessions with firm attorneys Chandler Agee, Sonya Dickson, Melissa Fuller, Nick Giallourakis, Courtney Hunt, Sampada Kapoor, McCann LeFeve, Chelsea Lewis, Vernon McFarland, Mitch McGuffey, Alison McMinn, Joshua Metcalf, and Spencer Ritchie.
