Harlem Native Honored With Ginsburg Scholarship for Helping Black Women Access Law School
4.7.2025
The New York State Bar Association honored Harlem native Talia Scott with its prestigious Ruth Bader Ginsburg Memorial Scholarship for her work in creating a fund to help Black women get accepted to law school. Scott inspired a packed House of Delegates meeting in Albany with a stirring acceptance speech that brought members to their feet. She chronicled her path to success and how she is creating opportunities for others that she did not have.
“My life has been defined by defying expectations. Entering the legal profession was more than a career choice. It was a bold declaration of possibility,” she said. “I didn’t grow up surrounded by lawyers. So, I made a choice not just to become what I didn’t see, but to create a pathway, so others wouldn’t have to look as hard to find themselves in the legal profession.”
Scott founded the non-profit Legally BLK Fund, which helps Black women pay for law school application fees, LSAT preparation classes and travel expenses tied to applying for law school. The fund has given out more than $60,000 in aid to applicants and is expanding to include mentorship and professional development.
“Talia Scott is a one-woman pipeline, helping dozens of young women succeed in law school,” said New York State Bar Association President Domenick Napoletano. “In just five years, Talia’s Legally BLK Fund has helped more than 50 women. Talia is carrying on Justice Ginsburg’s legacy of gender equity by making dreams come true for women entering the legal profession.”
“Every day, I get to help cultivate a community of black women who will become our future public defenders, judges, professors, general counsel, firm partners,” Scott continued. “Women who will shape doctrine, policy, and culture. Women who will just not practice the law, but redefine whose lives and futures it protects.”
Scott was raised in Harlem, the daughter of an immigrant parent. While attending Haverford College on a full scholarship, she continued to work to support her family. Working as a paralegal after her college graduation, she helped her once-undocumented mother navigate the path to citizenship. Scott spoke of the strength in diversity within the legal profession and she looked at the challenges ahead.
“Diversity has never been the opposite of merit. It’s a reflection of it, expanding who gets a shot doesn’t dilute excellence, it reveals it,” she said. “Progress in this profession, for people like me, has never been inevitable. It requires intention, persistence, and vision. Justice Ginsburg understood that change is generational. She opened the door, and now it’s on us to keep it open, to widen it, and to walk others through it. A more inclusive profession isn’t a radical idea, it’s a necessary one. Justice Ginsburg knew that.”
Following her graduation from NYU School of Law this year, Scott plans to work in business law while still leading the Legally BLK Fund.
The $5,000 scholarship is presented by NYSBA’s Women in Law Section, the Committee on Annual Awards and the Committee on Civil Rights. Created in 2020 after the death of Justice Ginsburg, the scholarship is designed to honor Justice Ginsburg’s principles including elevating the standard of integrity in the legal profession, fostering a spirit of collegiality and promoting the public good.
