A new program launching at the University of Toronto is looking to increase the number of Black law students.

The Black Future Lawyers program is a collaboration involving the university’s faculty of law, the Black law students association, and Black legal alumni.

One of its main focuses will be Black undergraduate students who may be considering law school, and will include special workshops and information sessions about financial aid and getting a legal education. It will also offer mentoring and job shadowing with Black lawyers and judges, the university has said.

“The thesis that we had is that there had been an under-presentation of Black students,” said Josh Lokko, national president of the Black Law Students’ Association of Canada and a law student at U of T.

“Students either aren’t applying, are not being accepted or they’re not accepting offers when they’re extended, so we try to address those things.”

According to the law school’s self-declared class profile information, Black students have typically represented about one per cent of the students entering law school, though the school has said some have identified as mixed race.

Lokko said the program will seek to teach Black students about the benefits of law school, and will also help them with things like building a strong law school resumé and feeling supported once they do get accepted.

“One of the main issues, in my opinion, is students don’t really understand the benefits that law school can bring,” Lokko said.

“When I came to law school, for example, I didn’t really know much about how the legal profession worked at all. I happened to plug into the Black legal community and that was really helpful. If that had not happened, I would have had a lot more difficulty in my law school experience.”

The university said that next year it will be launching a Black student application stream. Aside from having to meet the usual academic requirements, Black students will also be able to submit an additional personal statement and their application will be reviewed by at least three members of the Black community.

The Black Future Lawyers program was inspired by the Black student application program in U of T’s faculty of medicine, which launched in 2017. The medical school said as of 2018-19, 14 Black students were starting the Doctor of Medicine program, compared to one student in 2016-17. There were 15 Black students starting the MD program in 2019-2020.

The school said it attributes these increases to the Black student application program as well as a support program which offers mentorship to students.