‘We will not stay silent and sit idly by’

As a Latina lawyer, I am acutely aware that there are not enough attorneys who “look like me” in the profession. Industry statistics show that diverse attorney representation lags significantly behind their non-diverse counterparts. According to the American Bar Association’s National Lawyer Population Survey in 2020, Hispanics comprise 5% of all attorneys, African Americans 5%, Asians 2%, and other ethnic minorities make up 2%.

By contrast, white attorneys account for 86% of all lawyers in the US, a country where Latinos are conservatively estimated to account for 18% of the population, African Americans 13%, and Asians over 5%.

The lack of proportional representation in the legal profession is both glaringly obvious and fundamentally wrong, and it has been magnified by tragic events which have shaken our beliefs in the existence of fairness, equality and an equitable justice system.

Last year, one event challenged the country’s beliefs on social justice and racism and brought the disparities that exist between diverse and non-diverse communities to the forefront of public discussion—the killing of George Floyd.

The shock and outrage arising from the murder has been the catalyst for transformative discussions around race and equality and the strengthening of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement in its efforts to bring equality to social justice.

In response to the overwhelming reactions to Floyd’s death, many companies have made concerted efforts to provide spaces for diverse and non-diverse employees to share their thoughts, reactions, suggestions, and hopes for overcoming the disparities that encounter diverse communities.

The importance of Juneteenth

Juneteenth, also called Emancipation Day, or Juneteenth Independence Day, commemorates the end of slavery in the US, and is observed annually on June 19.

Juneteenth has been increasingly recognised as a day of remembrance, including at Lenovo where we also launched a series called “courageous conversations”, where our senior leaders engage employees across North America to share perspectives, insights, and ideas about how the company can evolve its approach to diversity and inclusion (D&I) and take positive steps to better address historical inequities.

And these types of interactions are critical as D&I conversations with business leaders often focus on concrete issues such as setting representational targets or implementing initiatives. The power and healing effect of listening, empathising, and doing everything you can to understand the impact of social inequalities on a fellow diverse colleague cannot be overstated.

“We will not stay silent and sit idly by as failed D&I policies lead to continuing under-representation for diverse attorneys.” - Jennifer Salinas, Lenovo

These emotional and necessary conversations directly led to a refocused commitment and momentum to make a difference, both internally and externally. But it is important to be cognisant that these discussions must result in tangible action.

To continue the trajectory that BLM has initiated, we have to remain open to dialogue and new ideas; altering culture is an uneven process that, in many cases, is driven by a succession of small changes.

These conversations and the ideas shared helped strengthen our resolve to address disparities in society, including the legal profession. Consequently, our business now engages in regular forums around race issues and leaders commit to their own personal goals and targets within their immediate teams, above and beyond the general company goals.

Making a difference

The increased resolve to bridge the disparities between diverse and non-diverse communities is not unique to Lenovo. Many companies and private enterprises have a commitment to supporting D&I initiatives that stretch through all business functions.

But where corporate legal departments often can make the biggest impact is by hiring diverse attorneys and law firms with a strong commitment to D&I.

As an organisation, Lenovo believes in the value of setting specific targets and understands that what gets measured is what gets done. Each year, we perform our organisational human resources planning practice which includes looking at diverse representation across all teams and at all levels of the business.

To provide transparency, Lenovo publishes a detailed annual Diversity & Inclusion report. This shares our targets, representation numbers and commitments, and ensures accountability for attaining company goals. Accountability like that is very important to improving the abysmal representation numbers for diverse attorneys in the legal profession.

For far too long, in the legal industry has failed to prioritise the goal of ensuring that the numbers of diverse attorneys reflect the changing demographics of the country.

The historical lack of emphasis on diversifying the legal profession has resulted in its being one of the least diverse professions in the US.

Corporate legal departments have helped raise awareness and lead the charge to improve the statistics by implementing a variety of carrot and stick approaches to the firms that work for them.

Many companies, including HP and Walmart, insist that law firms meet certain diversity targets. These efforts are vital to the goal of improving diverse representation in the legal profession, because if business imperatives are not tied to diversity initiatives, historical under-representation will undoubtably continue.

Success cannot be measured in numbers alone. Achieving diverse representation is not effective if there are no policies or initiatives that foster an environment where everyone’s input is equally heard and valued. For many years, D&I strategies have focused predominantly on recruiting and hiring more diverse attorneys but have failed to focus on the next key elements for creating lasting change—retention and promotion.

Law firms have made concerted efforts to recruit and hire more diverse associate attorney classes, yet the percentages of diverse attorneys progressing to partnership or leadership levels at firms still lags far behind both diverse candidate hiring statistics and law school graduation rates.

This means that while there are more diverse attorneys entering the workplace each year, there is not a corresponding increase in diverse law firm partners. Part of the answer to correcting this wrong is to empower diverse professionals by creating an inclusive environment that exists across all levels of a business.

Success might require involving senior leadership in D&I boards, creating clear metrics and performance reviews that fully value diverse attorney contributions, providing career development programmes for historically under-represented groups, and establishing employee resource groups that provide communities of shared identity for employees of all levels to engage with and support one another.