The Role of Diversity and Inclusion in Legal Staffing: How to Build a More Inclusive and Equitable Workplace

14 Jun The Role of Diversity and Inclusion in Legal Staffing: How to Build a More Inclusive and Equitable Workplace

Diversity is not just a buzzword among companies, it’s an important factor when setting up companies for success in the ever-changing present and future. As the population of the United States continues to change, the country is expected to have those now considered minorities representing the majority of the population by 2044. 

But the legal representation in the US doesn’t quite reflect this population: The latest ABA National Lawyer Population Survey found 86% of currently practicing lawyers are white, a rate that has remained steady for the past decade. Additionally, only 37% of lawyers are female. To best represent the changing population, it is critical that law firms embrace the ideas and practice of prioritizing diversity. 

Here’s how to begin the work now of diversifying your law firm going forward. 

• Understand racial bias and how it might be a subconscious hurdle in your firm. While it may be uncomfortable to think about, have you ever passed up a resume from an applicant because a name looked hard to pronounce? Or their university listed on their resume has historically been linked with a specific ethnic group? This is a form of racial bias and might be happening without any concerted effort. But it’s important to be aware that people have a tendency to be drawn to those with similar backgrounds and experiences — a penchant for hiring people who attended the same schools, or come from the same town, for example. Expanding your reach and incorporating blind resume reviews can help eliminate these stumbling blocks and bring in more diverse candidates for consideration. 

• Expand your awareness practices. It’s one thing to know a problem exists, or that a culture different from your own has practices you’re unfamiliar with. It’s another to establish programs to help explore and share these differences and talk about solutions and ways to celebrate them. By opening up your firm to lawyers and staff from different backgrounds, you can help them feel more welcome by expanding your holiday calendar, hosting discussions on cultures, backgrounds and history, and making a point to truly welcome and bring into the fold a variety of perspectives. 

• Consider your firm’s current brand identity and reputation. Here’s another challenge: Does your firm have a reputation for only hiring people from certain schools, or parts of the world, or of a particular ethnic background? If you’re not sure, spend some time on professional recruiting and review websites, like LinkedIn or Glassdoor, and read reviews. Do some searching on social media platforms to see how your company is talked about and pay close attention to whether any racial profiling, bias or oversight is discussed. Those can be red flags to potential job candidates! Take a look at your own social media and website and see who’s profiled and featured there. If everyone looks the same, that sends a clear message: If you don’t look like this, you don’t need to apply. 

• Make goals pertaining to diversity, equity and inclusion and then track your progress. If you fail to measure, you’ll never know if you’re making progress. Establish goals of increasing diversity, promoting inclusion and working to improve equity, then set intervals for checking to make sure progress is being made. If you decide to hire more diverse candidates this year, be specific: Set a goal of having 10 new diverse hires by the end of the year, then check in quarterly to see whether you’re on track to achieve or possibly surpass that goal. The same goes for community outreach, volunteer work, pro bono hours (and who’s getting them); any goal you set to make people feel more welcome and to attract a more diverse staff must be measured or it will not be prioritized. 

• Expand your recruiting process and add more tools. If most of your candidates are coming from the same place, it’s time to expand our reach. Work with student unions, different universities, fraternities, educational organizations, bar associations and other organizations dedicated to helping young lawyers and clerks advance their careers. Get your company’s name in front of more people and be present and accessible to their members in order to make a good first impression. This will boost your brand reputation, even if it takes a while to gain traction, and will help encourage more people to apply to your firm that might have otherwise passed it over. 

Expanding and prioritizing diversity will not happen overnight. There might be some internal pushback or challenges, but all change worth doing is a little uncomfortable at first, and addressing our own shortcomings and unconscious biases head on is a worthy challenge to undertake. A more diverse staff will result in a more diverse client base, which helps expand your reach as well!

If you’re looking for additional advice, or if you’d like to take more immediate action to diversify your staffing, call LeadingEdge Personnel. Our recruiters can help you find candidates who meet your background and experience requirements but might not have captured your attention on their own. Contact LeadingEdge today and let’s get to work!