Ryan Moore ‘25
Law Weekly Historian
Last Wednesday, November 8, the Virginia Law First-Generation Professionals (VLFGP) hosted an event celebrating National First-Gen Day. First-generation UVA Law students gathered in WB 125 for community, as well as hot chocolate, coffee, and free t-shirts. VLFGP President Ugomma Ugwu-Uche ’25 organized the event as a way for first-generation members of UVA Law to gather and share our struggles and successes as first-generation law students.
I say “our” struggles and successes because I am a first-generation law student as well. VLFGP’s event induced me to do my own research into first-generation law students because when you are a first-generation law student, it can feel like everybody else has lawyers in their family and knows how law school operates. The truth is not far off.
A first-generation student is typically someone who is among the first in their immediate family to attend higher education. First-generation professional students would therefore be among the first in their family to attend a professional school (medical, business, law, etc.). Per The National Association of Law Placement (NALP), first-generation college students made up about 23 percent of 2020 law school graduates.[1] But this number breaks down by race. Out of the Class of 2020 nationwide, 42 percent of Latino law students, 36 percent of Black law students, and 55 percent of Indigenous law students were first-generation college students.[2] By comparison, white law school graduates were most likely to have at least one parent who is a lawyer, at 18 percent.[3] Unfortunately, I do not have UVA Law specific numbers.
VLFGP’s goal is to address these disparities between first-generation and other college and professional students by facilitating the transition to law school. The organization is geared towards assisting first-generation college students, first-generation professional students, students from immigrant backgrounds, and students from low-income or working-class backgrounds. VLFGP addresses barriers that exist in the legal profession with the goal of making law school, and the legal field itself, more inclusive. Most importantly, VLFGP helps first-generation students feel that we are welcome and supported at UVA Law.
Several of my classmates and I were interviewed by the Law School about what being a first-generation law student means to us. During my portion of the interview,[4] I mentioned that being a first-generation student was defined by “determination” and “difficulties.” “Determination,” because to be the first in your family to do anything takes a lot of drive and determination to chart your own path and make your own way. I said “difficulties” because, in any field, when you are first-generation, you lack that built-in familial knowledge of how the system works.
In law school, unfamiliarity with how legal education and the legal field works truly sets you behind. Law is, as we all are painfully aware, a field that values tradition. For the most part, the Socratic method, 1L curriculum, journal tryouts, casebook readings, and exams have all remained the same since our parents entered law school when they were our age.[5] Law itself is ever-changing as legislatures draft new laws to address societal and technological transformations, and judges issue opinions interpreting those laws. But legal education and the legal field itself remain relatively static. And if a process or institution remains static, there is a premium placed on those with prior knowledge of how that institution operates.
In law school, that can look like parents who understand the stress of 1L year and send you care packages. It can look like family members who understand you cannot make the same time for them as you could before. Maybe you have an aunt or uncle who can review and provide you feedback on your first year LRW memo.[6] Maybe your parents drill you on doctrinal law over Thanksgiving break to prepare you for exams.[7] Getting quizzed on the elements of negligence by your parents over Thanksgiving dinner sounds like my personal Hell and gives off major gunner energy. But the food at white peoples’ Thanksgiving dinners usually sucks anyway, so how could things get any worse?[8]
I do not resent my classmates with lawyers in their families in the slightest for these advantages. I think America needs the best trained lawyers that our society and educational system can turn out. And if your parents have trained you to study the law since birth like a Soviet gymnast, good for you, you freak. All I mean is to highlight the differences between first-generation law students and those who have lawyers in their families. These differences are not “good” or “bad,” they just are. There is nothing any student in this school can do about their family situation. I am just glad there is a student organization at UVA Law that recognizes us.
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tqy7zz@virginia.edu
[1] https://www.reuters.com/legal/transactional/having-lawyer-parents-boosts-job-prospects-salaries-law-grads-2021-10-20/.
[2] Id.
[3] Id.
[4] You can find our interview in full as a Reel on the UVA Law Instagram page. I highly encourage you to check out what our classmates shared about themselves.
[5] Except my parents, because again, you know, the whole first-gen thing.
[6] This is a true story.
[7] Again, also a true story.
[8] I took my wife to Thanksgiving hosted by the Black side of my family and she cleaned plate.