CBA Record September-October 2023

The diversity train is a technique rather than a commitment to authentic diver sity, equity, and inclusion, let alone mean ingful change and people development. It derails those efforts and is more puffery than substance, more noise than progress. DICE Initiatives for 2023-2024 DICE’s aim is to examine diversity issues impacting the legal profession and our community. It seeks to create programs and projects to promote diversity, inclu sivity, equity, and engagement. This year DICE will launch a new collaboration with the Young Lawyers Section and others to present cooperative activities with the YLS Racial Justice Coalition, including assisting DACA students. DICE also will offer films, programming on diversity in the judiciary, and a cham pions of diversity awards presentation. One more offering is being planned, the new jewel in the DICE crown: a diver sity CLE certification program. Partici pants completing the six sessions (mostly consisting of virtual evening courses) will receive a DICE CLE diversity certifica tion. Diversity has many facets and faces. Unlike traditional diversity and leader ship programs, the CBA’s CLE course will offer a unique experience. The course will tackle what can be changed to educate and illuminate the minds of those will ing to examine their unconscious biases, interrupt their conditioning, and emerge with a different set of skills and strategies. Stay tuned for details on this new certifi cation at www.chicagobar.org. DICE heartily invites members to par ticipate in its upcoming programs. His tory will judge how an authentic diversity training can stamp out the sprint to jump aboard the diversity train cloaked with superficial, inauthentic rhetoric that obscures the reality of the discrimination, harassment, and bias that still exist.

HISTORY WILL JUDGE

BY NINA FAIN Uncoupling the Diversity Train R ecently, I attended a corporate board meeting with diversity plan ning on the agenda. As I listened,

mercial real estate purchase, the law firm directed their questions to the white men on the prospective client’s team, ignoring the pregnant female senior banker, who was the decision-maker. To make matters worse, the decision-maker pointed out that there was no diversity on the presen tation team. As you chuckle, gasp, or sigh, pause and consider that majority lawyers often resist the idea that they harbor uncon scious bias. In fact, though, according to an ABA study, women and people of color in the legal profession felt held to a higher standard than their white male counterparts. Another study concluded that almost 40% of lawyers who identify as members of LBGTQ+ communities or have disabilities report experiencing discrimination, harassment, and bias in the workplace. The legal industry is a microcosm of the rest of the corporate world. Although leaders in law firms espouse a commit ment to diversity, too few lawyers who are of color, women, or LBGTQ+ have over sight or management positions. More over, diversity officers rarely are thought of as adding to the firm’s bottom line. The reality is that lawyers who are entitled and privileged have little experience with or understanding of authentic diversity. Frequently, they embrace diversity with superficial initiatives and policies, lip ser vice, and “head counting” along the lines of race, ethnicity, and gender. Adding injury to insult, they are reluctant or unwilling to commit sufficient funds to address recruitment, training, and reten tion of diverse personnel.

the Black CFO seated beside me leaned over and sang, “People all over the world join hands, start a love train, love train…” I looked at him because I grasped his ref erence to the classic Philadelphia soul song Love Train, sung by the iconic Black music group the O’Jays. The song perfectly described the pre sentation by the Ivy League diversity consultant hired to design a public rela tions campaign promoting the company’s commitment to diversity. The company hoped to show it was “all in” on diversity and social justice initiatives, that is, the “diversity train.” Senior management engaged the diver sity consultant to solve a dilemma. The company’s stock had taken a hit after the company closed a major store in a Black and brown neighborhood. In addition, the general counsel of one of its largest customers threatened to pull their busi ness unless the company eliminated its culture of entitlement and privilege. I reflected on discussions I have had with colleagues in law departments who were directed to contact me to help resolve their diversity dilemmas. Two examples immediately came to mind, each representative of what I think of as the diversity-train challenge. The first example involved a “privi leged” law firm partner, who thought the GC’s request for more diversity in their ranks meant diversification of portfolio assets. The second occurred when, during a beauty contest for a $200 million com

Nina Fain is counsel to the JS Schirn Family Trust and serves as CBA Treasurer, Co-Chair of the DICE Committee, and is a CBA Record Editorial Board member.

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