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DEI Success Toolkit

Outward Facing Relations with Clients/Customers (Stakeholders)

Recommendations

  • Assess perceptions of DEI efforts, including through an analysis of the perception of DEI programs by employees and external stakeholders.
  • Consider, as regards client-service focused companies (and law firms), forming partnerships with clients around diversity, which may take several forms, including:
    • Bringing together affinity groups and ERGs from the employer and selected clients for events, potentially with guest speakers;
    • Running training sessions focused on building skills that employees at both organizations need;
    • Collaborating to identify secondment opportunities;
    • Jointly sponsoring selected events that provide diverse employees at different organizations the opportunity to get to know each other; and
    • Working with clients on public service initiatives that address legal issues faced by disadvantaged or marginalized communities can demonstrate a shared commitment to promoting social justice and equality.

How to Use

One of the most effective ways to advance your organization’s DEI mission is through the development of diversity-related educational programs in partnership with clients or customers. These programs can provide critical information necessary for members of the corporate and legal communities to apply DEI concepts in a practical and effective way.

We have provided a framework for how such programs could be approached and executed. While by no means exhaustive, we hope that the recommendations below prove useful as you create meaningful programming that advances the important goals of diversity in the profession.

Please note that the information provided can be used in coordination with the toolkit’s section on internal education and training programs.

Overview

  1. Different approaches to seminars (see sample seminar and symposium program templates)
    1. Lecture
    2. Panel
    3. Storytelling
    4. Workshops/Case Studies/Scenarios
  2. Making seminars interactive and meaningful/follow-up/themes (see interactive calendar of events)
    1. Threading themes throughout the year
    2. Educational vs. Skills-Building vs. Behavioral Change programming
    3. Breakout & Talkback Sessions
  3. Sourcing experts and panelists (see potential partners/subject matter experts)
    1. Start with state, local, and affinity bar association leaders
    2. Consider broad cross-section of industry: private practice, government service, public service, etc.
    3. Providing platforms to newer voices
    4. When all else fails: rely on your network!
  4. Examples of DEI programming
    1. Grit Project
    2. This Talk Isn’t Cheap
    3. NY State Bar on Demand & Live Programs
    4. Moving Up in the Illinois State Bar Association: Women in Leadership Roles

Tool

Seminar & Symposium Templates

These templates were developed to serve as a starting point when developing DEI programming.

Lecture Agenda (60 Minutes):

  • Opening remarks, housekeeping, & introductions (7 minutes)
  • Lecturer discussion (40 minutes)
  • Q&A (10 minutes)
  • Program close (3 minutes)

Panel (60 Minutes):

  • Opening remarks, housekeeping, & introductions (7 minutes)
  • Moderated Panel Discussion (40 Minutes)
    • For longer programs, consider adding a second panel and robust audience talk-back session.
  • Q&A (10 minutes)
  • Program close (3 minutes)

Storytelling (60 minutes):

  • Opening remarks from host organizations (5 minutes)
  • Introduction and presentation by speaker (45 minutes)
  • Q&A (8 minutes)
  • Program close (2 minutes)

Workshops/case studies/scenarios (90 minutes):

  • Overview of workshop goals and expectations (10 minutes)
  • Review case problem/scenario (15 minutes)
  • Team breakout sessions (40 minutes)
  • Team presentations (20 minutes)
  • Program close (5 minutes)

Model Panel Presentation:

Session Title: It Begins with Me: No Effort is Insignificant

Session Goals:

  1. Discuss relevance of DEI in the context of the legal profession:
    1. Diverse lawyers as America’s leaders; lawyers leading across professional sectors; impact of diversity on successful client strategy; diversity as a judiciary imperative.
  2. Discuss contemporary headwinds to DEI in the legal profession.
  3. Provide concrete habits that support inclusive excellence in organizations.

Panelists:

  1. Large firm practice attorney; small firm; government attorney; public interest attorney or public defender
  2. Moderated by: legal DEI professional or bar representative

Session agenda (60 minutes):

  • Opening remarks, housekeeping, & introductions (7 minutes)
  • Moderated Panel Discussion (40 Minutes)
  • Q&A (10 minutes)
  • Program close (3 minutes)

Interactive Calendar of Events

To help your organization develop DEI programs, we have created an Interactive Calendar of Events with appropriate resources that will help you plan fun and educational programs throughout the calendar year. 

Note:
Some resources may be listed multiple times because they are applicable to several themes during the year.

Resources

Potential Partners/Subject Matter Experts/Additional Resources
(in alphabetical order)

This list of national organizations may be able to serve as coalition partners and subject matter experts to assist your entity’s education, involvement, and advocacy in equity, fairness, and inclusion of underrepresented groups in the legal profession. Consider the list a starting point for your exploration for partners to help you in your work.  Many of these organizations, especially the national affinity bar associations, have state and local affiliates for you and your group to reach out and develop relationships.

  • ABA Civil Rights & Social Justice Section (ambar.org/crsj)
  • ABA Commission on Disability Rights (ambar.org/disability)
  • ABA Commission on Hispanic Legal Rights and Responsibilities (ambar.org/hispaniccommission)
  • ABA Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Profession (ambar.org/diversitycommission)
  • ABA Commission on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (ambar.org/sogi)
  • ABA Commission on Women in the Profession (ambar.org/women)
  • ABA Judicial Division’s Tribal Courts Council (https://www.americanbar.org/groups/judicial/committees/tribalcourts/)
  • Diversity Lab (diversitylab.com)
  • Hispanic National Bar Association (hnba.org)
  • Institute for Inclusion in the Legal Profession (theiilp.com)
  • International Association of LGBTQ+ Judges  (lgbtqjudges.org)
  • League of Women Voters (lwv.org)
  • Minority Corporate Counsel Association (mcca.org)
  • Ms. JD (ms-jd.org)
  • National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (napaba.org)
  • National Association of Minority and Women Owned Law Firms (namwolf.org)
  • National Association of Women Judges (nawj.org)
  • National Association of Women Lawyers (nawl.org)
  • NAACP (naacp.org)
  • National Bar Association (nba.org)
  • National Conference of Women Bar Associations (ncwba.org)
  • National Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer Plus Bar Association (lgbtqbar.org)
  • National Native American Bar Association (nnaba.org)
  • South Asian Bar Association of North America (sabanorthamerica.com)
  • University of Texas School of Law’s Center for Women in Law (cwil.law.utexas.edu)

Affinity Group Resource List

To help advance the cause of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the legal profession, the ABA encourages law firms and legal departments to consider implementing various affinity groups for lawyers and business professionals within their organizations. Affinity groups are coalitions of employees who join together in their workplaces based on shared characteristics, interests, or life experiences. Affinity groups are vital resources for networking, professional growth, and internal community development. Affinity groups also regularly provide critical opportunities for underrepresented groups to come together as one voice to raise ideas and issues important to their specific community or interest.

Affinity groups (often interchangeably called “Employee Resource Groups,” or “ERGs”) are common across industries. However, affinity groups are uniquely effective within the legal industry. This is in part due to the importance of peer networking for the purposes of business development and the continued demand for increased in-group mentorship among the younger generations of lawyers. Much like local and national affinity bar associations, internal affinity groups are essential to diverse attorney advancement, retention, business development, and personal growth.

Below is a brief list of resources to assist interested organizations in developing their own affinity groups. 

Resource List:

  1. From Bar Associations:
    1. American Bar Association: Legal Traps Associated with Affinity Groups
    2. American Bar Association Business Law Section: The Ethical Obligation of a Diverse and Inclusive Firm/Legal Department: A Case for Affinity and Resource Groups
    3. National LGBTQ+ Bar Association: Affinity Groups in Large Law Firms
    4. District of Columbia Bar Association: Lawyers’ Toolkit for Diversity & Inclusion
    5. Illinois State Bar Association: Workplace diversity: Employee resource groups
    6. New York State Bar Association: Building Belonging With Affinity Groups (Podcast)
  2. From Legal and other DEI Organizations:
    1. Diversity & Flexibility Alliance: Looking for Career Support, Professional Development, and Camaraderie? Consider Forming an Affinity Group
    2. McKinsey & Company: Effective employee resource groups are key to inclusion at work. Here’s how to get them right
    3. Minority Corporate Counsel Association: A Set of Recommended Practices for Law Firms
    4. Minority Corporate Counsel Association: The New Affinity Groups: Making a Difference in the Workplace And Community
    5. National Association of Law Placement: Diversity Best Practices Guide, 2020 Edition
    6. National Association of Law Placement: Increasing the Return on Investment: A Strategic Approach to Affinity Groups (Webinar)
  3. From Legal, Trade, and Popular News Publications:
    1. American Lawyer: Integrating Nonlawyer Professionals in Law Firm DEI Initiatives
    2. American Lawyer: Nine Steps to Building a Truly Effective Women's Affinity Group
    3. American Lawyer: Why Law Firm Affinity Groups Are a Valuable Resource
    4. Chambers | Associate: The Role of Affinity Groups: Perspectives from Arnold & Porter
    5. Law 360: Do's & Don'ts For Litigation-Proof Affinity Groups
    6. Law 360: Tips For Making And Maintaining Employee Resource Groups
    7. Law Practice Today: The Amazing Power of Employee Resource Groups
    8. Reuters: The importance of affinity groups: how to never feel alone.
    9. Thomson Reuters Corporate Counsel Connect Collection: Affinity groups in the workplace
    10. Vault Magazine: Get Involved in Affinity Groups as a Summer Associate
    11. Vault Magazine: What Are Affinity Groups & How Can They Help You Grow as a Lawyer