By Jen Coatsworth
"Equal Justice Under Law” is the inscription above the United States Supreme Court. While this is one of the foundational principles of our government, sadly, it is an ideal that is still not realized for underrepresented communities. I grew up in a family where diversity was a core value taught to me at a very young age. As the daughter of a gay father, I learned quickly the ugliness of bigotry and prejudice. The pain I endured as a child from closed-minded neighbors and friends stayed with me to adulthood.
I first became involved in the Bar Association nearly 20 years ago in order to participate in activities that I thought would contribute to the greater good of the profession and to our community at large. In particular, I was exploring ways that I could have an impact on advancing diversity initiatives to eliminate bias and prejudice within our legal community and beyond. DEI is such a foundational principle of our Association, which is a large part of what attracted me to become involved nearly two decades ago.
Consequently, I set a goal for our Association this year – at our Spring Quarterly, I challenged our members to participate in meaningful small group conversations our profession and beyond. Under the guidance of the leaders specially chosen for this task, these small groups have begun their discussions and have already started to develop concrete ideas about how we can advance DEIB principles in hiring and retention policies, the first of the topics they were challenged to tackle.
Below are summaries from the first group meetings:
Group led by Hon. Stella M Tsai and Shelley Smith, partner and chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer, Archer & Greiner:
We write to recap our small group discussion on October 9, 2024 about what members of the bar can do to carry out their DEIB objectives in this post-Fair Admissions era as diversity-related initiatives come under attack. We focused most of our discussion on retention efforts.
- RETENTION EFFORTS.
a. Project Litigate. Justice Christine Donohue and John Gismondi are the architects of Project LITIGATE (Lawyers Initiative To Improve next Gen Attorneys’ Trial Experience), an initiative supported by Pennsylvania law firms and judges which promotes career training of aspiring trial lawyers. At the October Board of Governors Meeting, a resolution encouraging firms to sign the Project Litigate Pledge was passed. Firms that sign the Pledge have promise to build next generation of trial lawyers and judges will incentivize firms to give new lawyers opportunities to participate in motions, oral arguments, and trials. This type of mentorship will promote job satisfaction and help with retention.
b. Succession Planning. Partners need to do a better job of planning for future, training the next generation for the legal profession, and turning over the keys. (Note: Troutman Pepper has a group of senior lawyers which have transitioned clients and undertake more pro bono initiatives).
c. CLEs, Panels on Fair Admissions Case and its progeny. Firms and companies need to understand what the Fair Admissions case actually says. Delivery of Legal Services committee and other organizations in the City have made presentations on what the case actually means and helped define what diversity initiatives are now regarded as prohibited, what initiatives are borderline, and those which remain unrestricted. Skittishness is understood but should not drive decision-making and might be mitigated with good information. We need a develop a road map. Note that a number of cases have been dismissed on basis of standing.
d. Managing Partners/Clients. One member of the committee, a former managing partner, described how they met with clients to address the implementation of their diversity and inclusion initiatives (that existed at the time). Support from the top is essential to meeting these objectives. One client closely tracked the assignments (from time reports). Also need to educate clients about the need to give new attorneys meaningful opportunities and not just veterans. Frequent turnover is not a good business plan for anyone.
e. Education. Some lawyers wish to do a better job at promoting diversity and inclusion and mentoring, but they don’t know what to do. Can we provide a tool kit? (SMT: this is where the protégé can mentor the mentor). Also discussed whether the new definition of “diverse” may be cause of embarrassment (e.g. growing homeless); probably best to leave such disclosures to the individual and allow them to self-identify.
f. Re-emphasize the Business Case for Diversity. It would be wise for firms to diversity their trial teams so they can deploy their resources anywhere in the U.S. and beyond. Who will maximize your success? We often talk about the “business case” as a factor that’s client-driven. Law firms can and should make their own business case – not just offering diversity because the clients demand it, but committing to diversity because it builds better teams (hence better solutions) for clients who may not even realize why it’s important, for strategic reasons. Firms shouldn’t shy away from this.
g. Mentorship Program. One firm whose employees participated in the discussionhas a structured mentorship program.
- They track progress and will require written feedback from the mentor.
- Strategic pairings.
- The mentors are required to give assignments to their mentees.
- The mentees may give anonymous feedback.
h. Diversity Factor in Compensation. Efforts to promote diversity (or lack thereof) can be considered in compensation decisions.
i. Employee Resource Groups (also known as affinity groups). Consensus is that ERGs are still valuable resources to promote retention; they cannot exclude anyone who wishes to join them. We should encourage more cross-pollination (e.g. invite men to attend Women in the Profession Chancellor’s Forum).
j. Intergenerational Challenges. We need to learn how to tackle the challenge of working with lawyers who insist on work-life balance and Gen Z, which never had to solve problems without Google.
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RECRUITMENT EFFORTS
a. Mansfield Rule. This is a certification process that helps law firms increase diversity and inclusion in their leadership and talent pools. Still going strong. Created by Diversity Labs.
b. Scholarship Programs. Some firms have concerns about the viability of scholarship programs in the wake of Fair Admissions. May be overreacting, but in 11th Circuit company discontinued program which funded black female entrepreneurs (Section 1981 litigation).
Small group led by Phil Yoon, chief staff attorney, Superior Court of Pennsylvania, and Regina Foley, partner, Raynes & Lawn:
Our group had a productive introductory meeting that identified a couple of initial but vital topics to pursue further. First, in order to enhance and improve diversity in hiring and retention, the legal profession must focus on the diversity pipeline. This means having attorneys go into schools, as early as grade school, and highlight the importance of having diverse representation in the legal profession because we cannot have diversity in hiring if there is no diversity in the hiring pool. The second focus is on mentorship opportunities, which would benefit both experienced and incoming attorneys so that each can be reassured that there is an environment embracing diversity. This environment is important for retention, which is often ignored when there is so much emphasis on diversity in hiring.
Small group led by Larry Felzer, senior director of finance and operations, SeniorLAW Center, Sophia Lee, chief administrative and engagement officer, Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania, and Chimdi Tuffs, partner, Gfeller Laurie:
The majority of participants in our small group session play an active role in hiring decisions at their respective legal organizations, which allowed for a robust and candid discussion about how to incorporate DEI practices in hiring processes to make for lasting impact. Practical recommendations included maintaining the consistency of the hiring committee members so that each candidate is considered by the same panel of committee members, and standardizing criteria upon which to measure each candidate to eliminate the influence of implicit bias.
Considerable time was spent discussing backlash to corporate DEI programs and initiatives, including the impact of SCOTUS’ Harvard and UNC decisions and the recently-settled litigation involving the Fearless Fund. Other concerns included thinly-veiled challenges to DEI in the form of questions posed by corporate leaders about the ROI (return on investment) and impact on the bottom line of corporate DEI efforts, as well as the explicit dismissal of the E (for equity) when discussing diversity and inclusion. We also questioned whether our historical understanding of diversity is changing based on recent events, and whether our definition of diversity in the legal profession was sufficiently broad to be inclusive of identity groups beyond sex, race, disability and LGBTQ+ status.
I’d like to thank our discussion leaders and the participants in all of the groups – we are excited to see where these conversations take us next, and how they can spur us to action.
Jen Coatsworth is 2024 Chancellor of the Philadelphia Bar Association. You can email her at chancellor@philabar.org.
