Justin Cruz, Thomas Jefferson School of Law's Assistant Director of Admissions, has been appointed to the Law School Admission Council's (LSAC) Diversity Committee for a two year term.
“I am honored to serve on the LSAC Diversity Committee with other administrators, professors and law school deans from across the country in its efforts to create programs to help expand the representation of minority law school applicants and enhance their opportunities for law school admission and beyond,” shared Cruz.
Cruz is an advocate of increasing minority representation in law schools. He is the current Vice-Chair for the American Bar Association's Minorities in the Profession Committee and also serves on the Law School Diversity Professionals Executive Committee. In addition to recruiting prospective law students around the country and welcoming the entering classes at orientation, Cruz actively supports TJSL's La Raza Law Students Association and TJSL's Crawford Legal Institute Mentorship Bond (CLIMB) Program throughout the year.
As a member of the Diversity Committee, Cruz will help develop law school retention workshops that focus on meeting the needs of law students of color. “In my new appointment I hope to bring new ideas to identify and memorialize best practices for recruitment of underrepresented African-American, Latino, Native-American, Asian & Pacific Islander, and LGBT students,” he said.
Cruz is a 2010 graduate of Washington University School of Law in St. Louis, MO and is an active member of the State Bar of Missouri. Prior to entering academia, Cruz worked as Contracts Counsel in the Legal Department at Life Technologies Corporation in Carlsbad, CA. He also held summer associate positions for Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP in San Diego, OR and at Davis Wright Tremaine LLP in Portland, OR. Before attending law school, Cruz earned his Bachelor’s degree from Georgia Tech in Industrial and Systems Engineering and worked as an Engineer at Caterpillar, Inc. for five years.