CBA Record May-June 2023

about ‘why don’t we have more diversity events?’” Identifying the need for more diversity events is applauded, but although the YLS is spot on, it is important to remember our institutional history in this regard. This series stands in the shadows of the CBA’s long institutional history when our organization was far less comfortable for everyone. In 2023, we must acknowledge that YLS Diversity Week stands on the plat form of decades of activities about diver sity in the profession. For example, as the 21st century began, now-Illinois Appel late Justice Jesse Reyes and CBA Treasurer Nina Fain (then an Equity Partner at McBride Baker & Coles LLP) joined with the late Thomas Bridgman (of Baker McK enzie) to launch the CBA Minority Coun sel Program founded by CBA Executive Director Emeritus Terry Murphy. When Reyes, Fain, and Bridgman met with cor porate CEOs and law firm managing part ners, the discomfort was almost palatable as requests were made to hire minority and women lawyers and assure that they would be given significant billable work to deepen diversity representation in transac tional and litigation matters. Learning from the Past Over the years, as CBA diversity con versations have continued, they have resulted in a track record of a commit ment to diversity. That fact is reflected in the diverse group of men and women who have become CBA Presidents. Yet let us not be confused, as we all know that 150 years ago, when the association was founded, race and gender discrimina tion were the norm – indeed, they were enshrined in the law. Let us therefore take an unvarnished view of the CBA’s reputa tion: in the late 1800s, as an organization that did not allow for diverse members, it existed firmly in the remnants of post Civil War discrimination. That is why any celebration of the past must be clear-eyed,

and why the focus and work of the CBA must immediately pivot to the future, recruiting the new generation of lawyers and judges who are not mired in the past. In more recent times, that focus on the future was brought home with the advent of social unrest. The CBA responded with the creation of the Racial Justice Coalition. Also, after the murder of Laquan McDon ald, 2017-2018 CBA President Steven Elrod asked Illinois Appellate Justice Michael B. Hyman and CBA Board of Managers Member Nina Fain to establish the CBA Implicit Bias Institute to develop programs on issues of racial justice and social change. Among the programs the Institute presented were those conducted with Ray Koenig III at Clark Hill PLC and speakers including Justice Dennis W. Archer, the first Black president of the American Bar Association. Other implicit bias programs presented included Wash ington University’s Professor Kim Nor wood and Harvard University’s Professor Emerita Sarah Redfield. To further pro mote continuity in the CBA’s engagement about diversity, Fain, also a member of the CBA Record editorial board, at the suggestion of Justice Hyman, the Record’s editor-in-chief, began writing on diversity issues in the CBA Record . As thought lead ers, their goal continues to be to encour age more members to join the diversity conversation. Over the past bar year DICE has col laborated with YLS and RJC leaders including Dan Berkowitz, Eir Salvi, and Kenny Matuszewski to develop programs focused on equity. Most recently, DICE, the Japanese American Bar Association, and the YLS hosted a trial reenactment of U.S. v. Korematsu, the culmination of collaboration with a bar association, a law school and CBA members as actors in the trial. Last bar year, then-YLS Chair Tracy Brammeier and other YLS leaders presented programs that included com munity leaders such as a university chan

cellor, the president of the City Colleges, and the executive director of PNCC, one of the oldest and most respected Hispanic organizations in the city. Onward to the Future This year, 2023 Diversity Week intro duced a roster of members who have been quietly active in the diversity space at the CBA. The series showcased diver sity influencers, including but not limited to incoming CBA Board of Managers member Maggie Mendenhall Casey and other emerging legal world diversity influ encers: Judge Beatriz Santiago, Attorney Radhika Lohia, and LAGBAC’s Mike Bradtke, are among the panelists who lend their voices to insist that there be a meaningful dialog about inclusion, engagement, and equity for recruiting and retaining diverse personnel, as well as the creation of new opportunities in the workplace. This stellar faculty reflects the rich pan oply of cultures in our CBA membership and its allies: Puerto Rican, South Asian, LBGTQ+, women, and African American that will share their perspectives on cur rent topics and events affecting the legal world. Their professional backgrounds complement their cultural points of view because they come from law firms, the judiciary, government, and companies to share their experiences with our audience. DICE congratulates the YLS for its leadership, as they join the diversity champions who have walked the path before them. Phelps and the YLS are wel come change agents in the fight for equal ity that many thought was settled in the 20th century civil rights area. Their work evokes the often-quoted words of assas sinated civil rights leader Malcolm X, “If you are not part of the solution, then you are part of the problem.” Clearly, the YLS’s vision to plan a Diversity Week is part of the solution. The YLS understands that, indeed, history will judge.

2023 DIVERSITY WEEK SEMINARS ARE AVAILABLE ON-DEMAND AT LEARN.CHICAGOBAR.ORG. Course description, pricing and amount of IL Diversity/Inclusion PR-MCLE available online.

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