Del. Supreme Court releases report on increasing diversity on the bench

DELAWARE – Delaware’s Supreme Court is working to make the bench more diverse and they’ve now released a report on how they plan to make that happen.

The 101 page report was put together by the state’s Supreme Court, the National Center for State Courts and the AccesLex Institute. It lists 50 recommendations for the court to consider in order to make the bench more diverse, including alternative pathways to the bar exam, creating new internships, and ways to encourage high school students to pursue a career in law.

Justices on the court say it all starts with young attorneys in the state who could one day make their way to the bench.

“Delaware has always been challenged by having a problem of attracting diverse applicants to the bar, and of course when you have a limited pool of applicants to the Delaware bar that are diverse, it also leads to a challenge of diversity on the bench as well,” Chief Justice Collins J. Seitz Jr. said.

“That’s important honestly for at least two reasons that I’ll mention, the first is to inspire confidence that our community has in the bench and in the bar, the second is access to justice, making sure we have an adequate number of attorneys who are serving our community,” Justice Tamika R. Montgomery-Reeves added.

Both justices say that some recommendations will be easier to handle immediately, and some others will take time. They say they’re committed to implementing the recommendations though and bringing more candidates to the bench.