f0bolous wrote:Any URM or other minority with enough foresight would have joined one of the diversity organizations
I am president of xxLSA at my school, but I didn't think the one line on my resume was enough. It is basically just a leadership position and doesn't mean you are a minority the firm seeks - or a minority at all. A college friend of mine was a white president of BLSA at his law school so assuming he was black just because of that would have made the recruiter look really stupid.
In any case, F0bolous, I take your response to mean that you had enough foresight to join a group as a proxy for the check box to which the law school application process conveniently availed us, but not enough foresight to see why you might not want to leave your identity to a single line about "xxLSA membership" on your resume.
. . . Moving on, a brief mention in a cover letter seems appropriate if it's done in good taste - e.g. "As a ___ URM and one of only ____ URMs at my LS, I appreciate your firm's diversity initiative." It's consistent with the conventional advise to point out something specific about a firm, showing you did your research, and identifying yourself as sought-after by the firm. I'd support a sentence like that.