A group of minority attorneys agreed Thursday night there is an urgent need for African-Americans and other minorities to enter the legal profession.

Rita Fry, the first assistant Public Defender in Cook County and graduate of the Northwestern

School of Law, advised students to apply to as many law schools as they can and to start finding out now about financial aid.

In stressing the need for minority attorneys, Fry said that of the 741,000 lawyers nationwide, only 22,000 are black.

Vincent Cornelius, an assistant DuPage County State’s Attorney and graduate of the NIU School of Law, said it’s “important to have drive” to become an attorney.

He said everyone on the panel “ran into the same obstacles” as students find now.

“The most important thing now is to take difficult courses,” Cornelius said, adding that students must be able to write well and to analyze.

Mike Diokno, a graduate of the NIU School of Law, stressed the “urgent need” for attorneys “who can articulate the feelings of minorities to the court system.”

Paula Johnson, an assistant professor of law at NIU, advised students to do “as much writing as you can before getting to law school.”

Leona Green, a visiting professor at NIU and graduate of the Northwestern School of Law in Evanston, said a law career has many options, one being able to return service to the community.

The panel, which also included Calvita Frederick, a graduate of Howard University, was presented by the NIU Black Law Student Association.