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6 January 2021Influential Women in IPMuireann Bolger

Diversity Q&A: ‘COVID-19 has already slowed change’

Is the legal profession doing enough to promote D&I?

The legal profession has taken steps in the form of training and the creation of purposeful programmes to ensure that individuals in a particular group have access to and obtain meaningful opportunities for growth, and much more. But there is always room for improvement and that takes the conscious effort and planning of attorneys at every level in every organisation.

Will the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement accelerate change?

I am hopeful the movement will accelerate change both outside of and within the legal profession, starting by ensuring that people are more open-minded about addressing behaviours they may not have realised existed—so those can be addressed and corrected, both individually and as a society.

What impact will COVID-19 have on D&I efforts?

COVID-19 has already had an impact on D&I efforts: some companies and organisations facing financial pressure during the pandemic put their D&I efforts on hold as they struggled to stay afloat—despite studies showing that companies with diverse leadership generate more revenue than companies without.

Because D&I is very much a work in progress in the legal profession, even temporarily stopping D&I efforts and programmes can have a long-lasting effect on the type and extent of diversity we see in leadership in years to come. Research also shows that diverse professionals may not have the same access to the tools and resources necessary for a successful virtual work environment, thereby placing additional hurdles on diverse professionals to thrive in a particular organisation.

But it is not all bad news: some companies have recognised the challenges posed by remote working and have provided the necessary infrastructure to those who need it.

Others have leveraged remote working environments to increase D&I efforts when it comes to hiring, considering candidates they may not otherwise have because of geographic limitations. The same is true for career, leadership, and professional development programmes as companies have come up with new and creative ways to make available training and networking programmes in virtual settings as part of their D&I efforts.

The impact COVID-19 will continue to have on D&I efforts very much depends on whether organisations can recognise the disparate impact the pandemic has had on their diverse professionals and how quickly those organisations can adapt to provide solutions to not only address those disparities but to also ensure their diverse professionals thrive in a new virtual work environment.

What more needs to be done?

We need to continue to be purposeful and methodical in the approach we take, including developing initiatives to educate people regarding unconscious bias, what it is, how it affects us, and what we can do to change it. Second, we need to promote equal access to opportunities for professional growth and advancement, and most importantly, we need to continuously work on issues affecting D&I.

What are your top tips for firms looking to promote a D&I culture?

‘Diversity’ and ‘inclusion’ are buzzwords and have been for quite some time. Establishing a D&I department is a great first step, and one I would recommend taking if a law firm hasn’t yet. But the work does not stop there.

All law firms must be purposeful and intentional in recruiting, developing, and advancing diverse attorneys in the legal profession, and that can be done in a multitude of ways.

These include recruiting from law schools not previously considered, establishing programmes that ensure diverse attorneys not only receive opportunities to develop their legal and business development skills, but also become more visible to influential partners in the organisation, and celebrating diversity as a strength that elevates everyone.

What are your hopes for D&I in the future?

My hope is that the legal profession is so diverse that there will no longer be a need for D&I programmes; that when we look across the attorneys in a courtroom or a negotiating table, the general counsels of the Fortune 500, the leadership of law firms, and students in law schools—we will see people of every background, race, gender, sexual orientation, and persons with disabilities in great numbers.

While it may take years or likely decades to get there, D&I programmes should aim to achieve this goal across several areas, including—but not limited to—recruiting, training, retention, career development, leadership, and developing business.

Cecilia Sanabria was named one of  Minority Corporate Counsel Association’s (MCCA) 2020 Top 20 Rising Stars last year. She can be contacted at  cecilia.sanabria@finnegan.com

Despite recent efforts to promote gender equality in IP, and more broadly in STEM industries, the number of female inventors named on patent applications lags far behind their male peers.

Emily Collins, vice-president of San Francisco Liaison Office at  Kilburn and Strode outlined the challenges for D&I within the patenting landscape in a  WIPR Patents Live webinar, The Leaky Pipeline: Gender Inequality in Innovation and IP. To find out more about how to subscribe and to listen to the session, visit  here.

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