For University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law Dean Michael Hunter Schwartz, the light bulb went off last year after he formed a diversity board. Carmen-Nicole Cox—a deputy district attorney in the San Joaquin County District Attorney's Office and a member of the board—pulled him aside and said, "If you really want to advance diversity in the legal profession, you need to get the legal employers involved."

That sounded right to Schwartz. Law schools for years have been working harder to recruit minority students, while legal employers have turned an eye toward recruiting and retaining diverse lawyers. But the legal profession is a continuum, and it makes little sense for law schools and legal employers to be tackling diversity and inclusion in their own silos when they could collaborate toward a shared goal. By joining forces, law schools can ensure they are producing not only diverse graduates but graduates with the diversity and inclusion skills employers want. Meanwhile, helping law schools bring in minority students will help legal employers ensure that the pool of law graduates from which they recruit represent the diversity of their area.