Issues & Trends
For Morris Manning, a Diverse Talent Pipeline Begins in High School
July 29, 2024
Three high school interns meet with Andrew O. Clarke (second from right), managing partner at District Legal Group, and Shanellah Verna Harris (far right), Morris, Manning & Martin associate.
To advance diversity in the legal profession, Morris, Manning & Martin, LLP is focusing on strengthening the pipeline to law school by providing critical experiences for high school students through its annual internship program.
“The overall goal of the firm’s diversity efforts is the long game,” says partner Jessica Rodriguez, who sits on the firm’s diversity steering committee and also chairs the Washington, D.C., office’s MMMPact initiative. “We’re doing what we can with lateral hires and senior associate levels, too, but the long game is really where we’re placing a lot of our time and effort.”
Created by the firm’s diversity committee 14 years ago in the Atlanta office, the two-week internship program provides high school students with experiences, resources, and contact with diverse role models to spark their interest in legal study. Two years ago, the D.C. office became the second one to offer the program. Morris Manning says early participants have gone on to attend law school and become lawyers. Since 2015, 132 students have participated.
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The firm cultivates relationships with D.C. public schools to connect with potential applicants. To qualify for the MMMPact initiative, Rodriguez says applicants need not pursue a legal career. “The purpose of the program is to [expose] students in the local area … to a corporate setting,” she says. “It’s not just for future lawyers, but it could be.”
Even the application process is meant to be educational. For many students, their Zoom interview with firm partners will be the closest approximation to a job application.
“I was 17 and had never interviewed at a law firm,” recalls former intern Muiz Wani, who interviewed with the firm’s Atlanta office in 2016. “I was wearing a dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up. One of the interviewers pulled me aside and said, ‘Maybe you want to unroll your sleeves and look a bit more professional.’ Things like that really matter. It showed that they were willing to help, and [they] understood that you’re young and don’t have it all figured out.”
Wani’s internship included practical training and skills development. Wani recalls being asked to research and brief a legal question using materials gathered from Westlaw. “I didn’t know what Westlaw was at the time,” he says. “I got to practice legal research skills, legal writing, and oral communication. We did moot court simulations with legal research and an emphasis on legal advocacy. We also got to sit in on two legal classes — a contracts class at the John Marshall School of Law and … a class about race and the law at Georgia State … We got an early introduction into the class offerings that law schools have, and also the range of legal and policy issues and their interaction.”
Wani’s initial interest in the law came from history and civics classes as well as his family’s roots in Kashmir. Kashmir remains the subject of dispute, fractionally administered by India, Pakistan, and China since the end of British rule in 1947.
“Growing up as a Kashmiri, ideas of self-governance, rule of law, and democracy are all talked about, even as a 
young kid. You don’t necessarily understand the issues that are being talked about, but they’re there,” says Wani.
“I wanted to be able to advocate for the community and, I think, over time, I understood that law was the way to do it. That interest was independent of the internship itself, but the internship showed me how there are different ways to be involved in the law and different ways to approach advocacy. It gave me a broader way to view the law and of the opportunities that are out there,” adds Wani, who graduated from the University of Michigan Law School in May.
Sitting for the New York bar this month, Wani will join the New York office of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP in September, and he will clerk for Chief Judge G. Murray Snow of the Arizona District Court in 2025. He describes himself as continuing to gather the experiences and tools that will support his practice as an attorney.
“I think, long term, what I’d like to do is work in public interest in some capacity, either the federal government or with a city agency,” Wani says. “I think that would be a nice way to put together the skills I have gathered and benefit the public in some way.”
The Morris Manning internship program has been popular among the firm’s attorneys and staff. One senior partner strategized with interns on their collegiate aspirations and gifted them SAT prep textbooks. Other attorneys participated in presentations and invited students to shadow them in a deposition. Many recognized the importance of formative experiences in their own professional journeys.
As the child of a single parent and the first in her family to go to college, Rodriguez says she understands the importance of access to experiences that can help young people from diverse backgrounds reach their potential.
“I am happy to have the opportunity to give someone this experience at a young age so that they can be prepared to enter a professional setting,” Rodriguez says.
