2025 Diversity Clerkship Program Class participants. Photo: Shannon Green
As the Diversity Clerkship Program concludes its 2025 summer program, we are reminded of the importance and impact the program has on our legal community. Not only does it provide students with an understanding of what it truly means to work in the legal field, but it also connects them, our future leaders, to the State Bar of Wisconsin and its resources early on in their careers. The program opens doors for both students and employers.
Many of the students in the program lack prior experience in the legal field. The Diversity Clerkship Program allows participants to get real-life experience, which will help them as they decide what to do for their second-year summer, and after graduation.
Marisol González Castillo, U.W. 2018, is an attorney at MacGillis Law Group LLC, Verona. She is the co-chair of the State Bar of Wisconsin’s Diversity & Inclusion Oversight Committee and emceed the Diversity Clerkship Program reception in July. She is also a member of the State Bar’s Young Lawyers Division and the Wisconsin Hispanic Lawyers Association, and is a Fellow of the Wisconsin Law Foundation
Every year, the State Bar holds a Diversity Clerkship Program recognition reception to celebrate the summer’s class and recognize the participating students and employers.
This year, we were able to celebrate 16 students and employers who participated in the program. Since its inception, 623 students have gone through the program.
At these receptions, students get an opportunity to share some thoughts about their summer experience. We heard about students who gained and developed skills that will help them in their work as future lawyers and allowed them to get a better understanding of what it means to be a lawyer.
We also heard how the program enabled them to gain mentors who invested in them and took time to teach them about the law and feel welcomed in the legal field. These students’ comments show the importance of the Diversity Clerkship Program, of exposing students to different employers in the legal field, and the significance of dedicated employers.
While we start preparations for the next class of Diversity Clerkship Program participants, we are grateful for the support provided by the many employers who have been part of the program and encourage others to join us in making a difference for these future leaders and lawyers and for the future of the legal field. As State Bar President Dan Gartzke has said, “creating a culture where everyone feels welcome has always been the driving force behind our programs.”
That is exactly what we achieved again this summer through the State Bar’s Diversity Clerkship Program.
» Cite this article: 98 Wis. Law. 72 (September 2025).
