Rushing to Meet Client Demands, Law Firms Risk Alienating Diverse Lawyers | The American Lawyer - The American Lawyer

What You Need to Know

• Inadvertent tokenism can exist anywhere there are underrepresented groups, which encompasses virtually all of the Am Law 100.
• The lure of the practice is that clients want diverse teams, and outside firms want to illustrate they can provide those.
• The way to mitigate the practice starts well before the client asks for a diverse team and is an outcome of a comprehensive DEI outlook.

Law firms have dedicated a great deal of focus to increasing diversity, but many are falling short on enacting meaningful changes to improve equity and inclusion. That undermines retention efforts, and causes law firms to continue falling short of moving the needle.

Additionally, some in the industry have noted, it creates a dynamic of tokenism which can alienate people from underrepresented groups. As Michael Coston, CEO of Coston Consulting, put it, “diversity without inclusion is tokenism.”

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source: https://www.law.com/americanlawyer/2021/12/15/rushing-to-meet-client-demands-law-firms-risk-alienating-diverse-lawyers/

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