Fowler law students reflect on experience and school reputation

Current students and alumni of the Dale E. Fowler School of Law spoke with The Panther on their perspectives of the law school and its efforts to promote diversity and inclusion. Panther Archives

Zach Amin hadn’t heard about the John Eastman Newsweek opinion. A 2019 Chapman alumnus now a student at the Dale E. Fowler School of Law, Amin paused when he was asked over the phone about the law professor’s controversial piece on Kamala Harris’ vice presidential eligibility. He had no thoughts as to the situation, he said, other than seeing President Struppa’s Aug. 19 email response. 

“I will say this,” Amin said. “As far as me being a Syrian, Muslim, first-generation student, I speak Arabic and I’m very proud of my heritage. I’m very obviously not white, by any means, and I have never in my life – in my time at Chapman – felt anything but welcomed.”

This fall, Fowler accepted its most diverse class in the school’s history, with first-generation students accounting for 36% of the class and “underrepresented populations” making up 52% of the class, according to Struppa’s email.

Dean of the Fowler School of Law Matt Parlow told The Panther the class was the product of strategic, internal admissions efforts to widen the application pool year-to-year. This commitment to diversity was something that made Amin feel extremely comfortable.

“I’m a first-generation student; my parents were immigrants. I wasn’t raised in a manner where I had access to resources … especially seeing a lot of students now whose parents are attorneys or doctors or other professionals, and they’re very connected and established,” Amin said. “And going into it, I didn’t have any of that – I got into school by myself, I studied for the LSAT by myself, I got myself into Chapman. I love to see that Chapman appreciates that.” 

However, third-year student and Vice President of the Black Law Students Association (BLSA) Daenara Burgess noted that simply pointing at those diversity statistics as a front for any negative press – particularly having to do with Eastman – wasn’t enough. In fact, it upset her to see the school didn’t take any significant action to condemn the piece and instead simply promoted the demographics of the new class.

“I applaud and deeply appreciate the efforts made by our school to create a more diverse and inclusive environment, but that’s simply a single step in a long list of actions that need to take place,” Burgess said. “Solely increasing the number of Black indigenous people of color on campus, without increasing the systemic racism within the institution, just increases the number of students that are dealing with the trauma of a racially hostile environment.”

A 2020 alumna of the law school reached out to The Panther and described her experience working at the Constitutional Jurisprudence Clinic that Fowler offers its students. During her time with the clinic she alleged she was “forced,” in order to receive credit, to pick up one of three cases that all “strongly went against” her political beliefs: an anti-abortion case, an anti-LGBTQIA+ case and a voter suppression case.

Director of the Constitutional Jurisprudence Clinic Tom Caso, who has over a decade of experience running the clinic, however, told The Panther students aren’t forced to work on cases and he can’t recall a situation with a student where they were so opposed to a case they couldn’t work on it. He said if a situation like that were to arise, he would sit down and discuss with any students who feel unsettled. 

“We’ve had a student who was totally opposite in terms of political viewpoint to take on a case, and mentioned to us at the end of the semester that it was a very valuable experience for them,” Caso said. “I mean, that’s the life of an attorney – you’re representing the client, you’re not representing your own political viewpoint.”

That notion of systemic racism within the institution – not simply limited to Fowler, but expanded further to the practice of law – was something Burgess noted the school needed to actively fight against. The percentage of lawyers a part of minority groups is low; in particular, the American Bar Association reported in 2019 that only 5% of lawyers are African American and 36% are women.

Burgess, similar to Amin, said she had an excellent experience during her first two years at Fowler, thanks to a fantastic support system constructed by a network of professors, deans and BLSA. However, as a Black woman heading into a white-male-dominated field, there’s a certain weight she has to carry when walking through Fowler’s halls. 

“It’s not necessarily to say that one specific school is outrageously aggressive or hostile; it’s just to say the institution as a whole is,” Burgess said. “There’s so many obstacles that have to be overcome as an individual who is a person of color.”