HARVARD LAW TODAY — “This is a unique moment, particularly to be a Black law student,” Harvard Law School Professor David B. Wilkins ’80, told an audience of students during a late February talk titled Black Lawyers Matter — Race, Obligation, and Professionalism from the Civil Rights Movement to BLM and Black Corporate Power. Today, he said, you can find Black graduates in every echelon of American society and the world. “And of course, in 2008, that number came to include someone with big ears and a funny name, Barack Hussein Obama, and his wife, Michelle Obama, who became president and first lady of the United States.” Lots has changed, but not enough, said Wilkins, faculty director of HLS’s Center on the Legal Profession. The good news, he said, is there are now 65,000 or so Black lawyers in the United States. In 1960, there were something like 2,200 Black lawyers in the entire country. But currently, Black lawyers account for less than 5% of members of the bar. And when you look at positions of power and prestige in the legal profession, he said, that number is lower.