CBA Record March-April 2023

Chicago Bar Foundation Report

Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion: Interdependent Values for Carrying Out the CBF Mission By Bob Glaves, CBF Executive Director W e are all familiar with the concepts of diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI. It is a sign of progress for our profession and community that the courts, law firms, corporations, and other law-related organizations now routinely include a commitment to DEI as one of their core values. Equity Equity is about offering different types of support to ensure that everyone has a fair chance of being successful. This includes ensuring every person has access to the resources and support they need based on their individual circumstances to get a fair and efficient outcome on their legal issue. The CBF also incor porates equity into our grants, advocacy, programs, and internal operations. The image below helps illustrate the difference between equity and equality.

The CBF frames our DEI commitment as “justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion,” or JEDI, as a core tenet of our strategic plan adopted in June 2021, which we developed with the help of Dr. Arin N. Reeves of Nextions, who started her legal career practicing in Chicago and is now a nationally recognized con sultant on DEI issues. That phrasing reflects the CBF Board’s recognition of how central these values are to achieving our mis sion of bringing the legal community together to improve access to justice and make the legal system more fair, equitable, and effective. The CBF highlighted this commitment last year in an Op-Ed featured in Crain’s Chicago Business as part of their ongo ing equity series (https://chicagobarfoundation.org/blog/cbf-op ed-featured-in-crains-chicago-business-equity-series). Defining JEDI and DEI People do not always use these terms in the same way. There is generally a common understanding of the term diversity, but when it comes to equity, inclusion, and even justice, we are not always on the same page. Therefore, as we kicked off the implementation of our strate gic plan in 2021, the CBF board and its new JEDI Committee began developing a consensus of what we mean when we use each of the four JEDI terms. This was an important step both for clarity—so we all mean the same thing when talking about these concepts—and to ensure accountability. The definitions the CBF Board adopted follow below. Justice Everyone facing a legal issue (1) has timely and affordable access to the level of legal help necessary for them to get a fair and effi cient outcome on the merits of their legal issue, and (2) objec tively can believe they were treated fairly in the process.

Interaction Institute for Social Change. Artist: Angus Maguire.

Diversity The CBF is firmly committed to having its board of directors reflect the diversity of the legal community in every regard: age, race/ethnicity, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, prac tice setting (e.g., law firms of all sizes, judges, corporate, govern ment, academic, etc.), and experience.

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