Malcolm Robinson is working to increase diversity among lawyers as president of the National Bar Assn., the organization that represents black attorneys.

He started by recruiting his son, Brian.

“It’s an everyday struggle,” said Brian Robinson, a second-year law student at Kansas University. “We’re working toward more minority numbers. The more diverse the law school, the more valuable the law degree is for everybody.”

Malcolm Robinson, a 1975 KU law graduate, practices commercial law in Dallas. His son would someday like to work at his father’s firm as a litigator.

Brian Robinson said he decided to become an attorney during his sophomore year at Texas Wesleyan University in Fort Worth.

“I wasn’t lobbying him to go to law school. He needed to decide that on his own,” Malcolm Robinson said. “Once he decided he wanted to go, I insisted one of his applications be to KU. KU’s a great law school. A degree from the KU law school is equal to any degree from any school, in my opinion  public or private.”

Malcolm Robinson said his main focus as the association’s president, a position to which he was elected in August, would be recruiting more minority law students and professors.

Noting that none of the top 200 law firms is owned by blacks, he said there was a real need for black attorneys who own their firms.

And, Malcolm Robinson said, the business community must become more comfortable with black attorneys.

Black firms “can’t get access to the business at the same rate as the other firms,” he said. “There are glass ceilings for African-American-owned and -operated firms.”