In this thoughtful piece from ACC Docket and DiversityLab, an incubator for diversity and inclusion in law, comes a call for corporate law departments to do more to move the diversity, inclusion and social equity needle in their own houses. “It’s time to turn the mirror inward,” writes Caren Ulrich Stacy, founder of DiversityLab. “In light of the global workplace disruption caused by COVID-19, the recent racial justice movements sweeping nations, and the feeling of increased political polarization in the United States, we need more people to become intentional advocates for real change now more than ever. You have the power and influence to get things done — why not use that power for the good of the legal profession, your companies, and society as a whole?” With that, Stacy and her co-authors, Jennifer Deitloff, senior associate general counsel and chief diversity officer of Scoular, and Shawntal M. Smith chief professional development officer and general counsel of OHB, offer 10 practical steps in-house counsel can take to advance D&I in their departments. These include leveraging the scope and connectivity in-house lawyers enjoy across their organizations and advocating for an organizational language audit “so that all communication touchpoints within the organization have inclusive and non-offending language universally.” Read more at ACC Docket.
Published October 5, 2020.
