diversity – NWSidebar

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Environmental, Social, and Governance: What Lawyers and Firms Need to Know About Accountability

Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) is essentially an investing framework that brings a broad range of what have traditionally been considered nonfinancial factors into financial decision-making and risk analyses. ESG expands corporate accountability beyond shareholders to include external stakeholder expectations on a variety of factors such as climate change, use of consumer data, and racial justice (among many others), which we broadly group into the three buckets of environmental, social, and governance.

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How Lawyers Can Create an Inclusive Environment for Coworkers and Clients

Our language, a shared communication tool, reflects our society. As such, we can use it to create a more inclusive environment where all belong. Part of this work is actively and continuously creating a space where gender and pronouns are not assumed. For lawyers especially, this is a critical part of ensuring a healthy workplace and happy clients.

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Building a Culture of Gender Equity: Insights from a Majority-Women-Owned Firm

I am the managing shareholder of a 50+ attorney business law firm with 29 equity partners: 16 women and 13 men. Stokes Lawrence was founded 40 years ago by two men. While we did not consciously seek to be majority women owned, we have always attracted and been successful retaining women lawyers. In fact, our firm was recently admitted to the National Association of Women and Minority Owned Law Firms

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ATJ Board Honors Chelan-Douglas County Volunteer Attorney Services

Next week, the Access to Justice Board will honor a legal organization with a passion for expanding access to justice. The ATJ Board will present its inaugural Promoter of Justice Award to Chelan-Douglas County Volunteer Attorney Services (CDCVAS).

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Law Firm Diversity: Key Findings from the 2019 Report on Diversity in U.S. Law Firms

For the first time since the Great Recession, the legal profession hit a milestone for diversity in 2019.

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Learning the Business of Being a Lawyer: How I Started My Second-Career Solo Practice

Attorney Eleanor Doermann explains how she used her business experience as a physical therapist to become a private-practice lawyer helping LGBTQ seniors.

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Dispute Resolution in Washington and the Women Behind It — From the Nordic Bronze Age to the 2019 NW Dispute Resolution Conference

The origins of mediation and arbitration can be traced back as far as 1800 B.C. to the Mari Kingdom in Syria as a way to resolve disputes with other kingdoms, according to A History of ADR, published by the Association for Conflict Resolution (ACR). In the book “Malinche, Pocahontas, and Sacagawea: Indian Women as Cultural […]

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The Little Biases in All of Us

The bad news is that everyone has implicit biases and most don’t know it. Then what’s the good news? The bad news is that everyone has implicit biases — beliefs that are so ingrained that we don’t even know they’re there. And those implicit biases often find a way out of our mouths or through […]

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When Workplace Diversity Becomes a Trade Secret We All Lose

In order to be competitive, companies are trying to claim ownership of their approach to diversity and inclusion, especially in recruiting. IBM is suing Microsoft for hiring its former chief diversity officer, according to a recent Seattle Times story. It’s a move that has some employment lawyers puzzled; non-compete agreements usually aren’t enforced over positions […]

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When “N#gg!r§”* Rise

Equity, inclusion, and justice within the legal profession are under attack and it’s time to fight back. *Warning: This word — the actual word — is a prominent part of the article below. It has been somewhat sanitized in the title because, I understand, it’s a word that can shock, cause discomfort, and shut down […]

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8 Things I learned from WSBA’s Disability and Ableism Program

My key takeaways from Beyond the Dialogue: Disability and Ableism within the Legal Profession. In October, as part of Disability Awareness Month, the WSBA Diversity Program partnered with the Washington Attorneys with Disabilities Association to present a program entitled Beyond the Dialogue: Disability and Ableism within the Legal Profession.

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12 Attorneys, a Call to Action, and 5 Minutes

Around a large conference table at Perkins Coie in Seattle, twelve young attorneys of the Washington Leadership Institute listened attentively as a local Muslim-American lawyer spoke about media portrayal of Islam. The lawyer, Aneelah Afzali, issued a call to action, urging her audience to know Muslim people and challenge the media’s portrayal of Islam.

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It’s Here: The September Issue of NWLawyer

Inside the latest issue of NWLawyer, you’ll find: cross-examination tips from one of the state’s leading trial lawyers; an in-depth look at the use of police body-worn cameras in Washington; and an exploration of mandatory malpractice insurance. You can also take our 11-question quiz to test your knowledge on gender barriers. See how much you […]

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Is “Diverse” Really What You Mean?

Language matters—I mean really, really matters. The words we choose can make a huge difference to the overall meaning of something we are communicating. Even little connotations and implications can have a big impact on the meaning. For example, if I were to write the sentences, “His actions were youthful,” and, “His actions were childish,” […]

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My Pride Is More Important than Ever

By the time this gets published, LGBT Pride month will be coming to a close or have already ended, but I thought I would share a few thoughts about it anyway. Prior to my job here at WSBA, I worked on several college campuses, leading LGBT centers. Often I was asked why it was necessary […]

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Running At-Large Part II: Let’s Be Real

Gov. At-Large Mario Cava: We need diverse leaders who understand the disparate impacts of our policies and break barriers to justice. While running for governor at-large on the WSBA Board of Governors offers “visibility” for those traditionally underrepresented in the profession, it also means speaking out as a champion for justice. After all, it is […]