Contacts:	Heidi Nesbitt, 277-5462 Jason Gil Bear, 277-5813
June 19, 2002 PRE-LAW SUMMER INSTITUTE FOR AMERICAN INDIANS, ALASKA NATIVES BEGINS AT UNM The challenges of law school can be demanding. But 29 students at the University of New Mexico are participating in a two-month program that prepares prospective lawyers for the rigors of law school. The Pre-Law Summer Institute for American Indians and Alaska Natives (PLSI), started in 1967, is a nationally recognized program administered by the American Indian Law Center, Inc., a not-for- profit organization. The eight-week program is partially funded by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and by donations. Students are in session from June 3 to July 26 at the UNM School of Law. Heidi Nesbitt, director of PLSI, said students take four law courses: property, torts, Indian law and advocacy, which have been condensed into two months. "The professors who teach the classes evaluate the students just as they would as if they were actually in their first year of law school," Nesbitt said. "They are given grades as well as written evaluations that inform the student and the prospective law school what their strengths and weaknesses are." Nesbitt said part of the class structure is for students to read client interviews, write legal briefs and argue before a panel of judges enabling students to get a first-hand account of the structure of the U.S. judicial system. "We have a 86 to 98 percent success rate with students successfully completing the program and being accepted into law school," she said. "The range of numbers depends on how many students with whom we've lost touch graduated. If they all graduated, it's a 98 percent success rate. If none of them graduated, it's an 86 percent success rate. Either way, it's a very successful program." Upon enrolling in the class, students do not have to be accepted into a law school but must have taken their LSATs. Participants must be members of a federally or state recognized tribe to be admitted into the class. Nesbitt said students will learn about law school demands but also establish important friendships with other Native American law students that will be beneficial to them after graduation. She said students who have completed the program have been admitted to dozens of law schools across the country, including state schools such as UNM, Arizona State, Michigan, Wisconsin and private schools such as Harvard, Colombia, Cornell and Stanford. ###

The University of New Mexico
Public Affairs Department
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Telephone: (505) 277-5813
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