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Black Law Student Association

Admitted Students

Welcome Message

Congratulations on your admission to Vanderbilt University Law School! The Vanderbilt Black Law Students Association (BLSA), welcomes you to Nashville and we strongly encourage you to consider joining BLSA as you start this phase of your legal career.

Vanderbilt’s Black law student community is comprised of intelligent, sociable, and supportive future lawyers. As one of the most active student organizations at Vanderbilt Law, BLSA uses its platform to advocate for the Black community by actively engaging our administration on important issues such as faculty recruitment, admissions practices, diversity and inclusion policies of extracurricular organizations, and cultural competency training for faculty and staff. At Vanderbilt, we recognize that this advocacy is crucial to maintaining and improving an inclusive institutional culture.

Academically, we collaborate with our professors to provide workshops on legal writing, case briefing, outlining, and exam preparation to help BLSA members acclimate to the 1L year and to ensure that they have all the resources necessary to excel in law school.

Professionally, we host numerous speakers and career panels that explore a variety of legal careers throughout the school year. Additionally, every year, we match our BLSA 1Ls with 2Ls and 3Ls to build mentor-mentee relationships and offer academic and professional advice. Each year we try to offer our members mock interviews, resume reviews and an informational series on profiling various legal practice groups. Ultimately, Vanderbilt BLSA is here to support our members in any way we can throughout their time in law school.

Socially, we host an annual Welcome Back BBQ, game nights, brunches, and a variety of other events to keep students engaged. In light of the pandemic and recently lifted COVID restrictions, we appreciate the importance of fostering community now more than ever.

We hope you will consider joining Vanderbilt’s Black law student community next year. To find out more about Vanderbilt BLSA, or to get connected with some of our amazing members, please check out our Instagram page, @Vanderbilt_BLSA, or email us at vls.blsa@vanderbilt.edu. We are excited to hear from you!