More than 60 high school students from underserved backgrounds around Western Washington experienced life as Seattle University School of Law students for a day as part of the 2024 ilead Law and Leadership Conference.
Led by national pipeline program Just The Beginning, whose goal is to streamline the journey from underprivileged communities to the legal world, the free three-day summer program introduces law school and legal career opportunities to young people. Taking the place of LawYours, which ran for two previous summers at Seattle U Law, the program includes visits to Sullivan Hall, the University of Washington School of Law, and the King County Courthouse.
Throughout the day at Seattle U Law, students attended a mock law school class and panels with faculty, staff, students, and alumni to learn about the steps to apply and gain entrance to law school, as well as the many types of careers made possible with a legal education.
Seattle Municipal Court Judge Anita Crawford-Willis ’86 delivered the keynote speech, in which she shared her path to the bench as a Black woman at a time when she “had not seen a lawyer who looked like [her].” Growing up without exposure to the legal profession, her only childhood experience with an attorney came at age 8, when a public defender represented her cousin in court.
“As I watched the lawyer who was representing my cousin, I was touched by the work he was doing advocating for my cousin, speaking on his behalf,” she said. “At that moment, I said, ‘That is what I want to do.’”
She earned her law degree from Seattle U Law, where she noted that she received immeasurable encouragement and support from her professors, and later became a public defender.
“It was a full-circle moment for me,” Crawford-Willis said. “There I was, having the opportunity to advocate for someone else’s cousin, just as I had seen that lawyer advocate for my cousin.”
Now as a judge, a position she once thought was impossible to attain, Crawford-Willis told the students, “Your backgrounds cannot stop you from achieving the goals you want.”
“Your backgrounds are there to propel you into becoming the kind of leaders you want to become,” she said. “You belong in every room you walk into. We need your voices and your perspective to be heard in order to make real changes in our society. You are capable of doing anything you set your mind to.”
Crawford-Willis advised the students not only to seek out mentors, but to act as mentors themselves and “lift others as you climb,” a piece of wisdom that especially resonated with Aaliyah Nagori, a rising junior at Bothell’s North Creek High School.
“I want to study law because I think there is something powerful about taking part in your government and advocating for people who are underrepresented,” Nagori said.
Sur Jaswal, a rising senior at Raisbeck Aviation High School in Tukwila, said that she comes from a community of immigrants who often seek the help of lawyers in immigration matters. She wants to become a lawyer to help these friends and neighbors.
“I always wanted to give back to my community,” Jaswal said. “The ilead experience has been really eye-opening to see where the law can take you, how many different paths there are in law.”