Compiled for the LCLD Board of Directors every Wednesday, this digest is designed to brief you on the latest headlines about LCLD Members and organizations, as well as thought-provoking articles on diversity in the legal profession, talent development, mentoring, and leadership. Past issues of the Digest are also archived on the LCLD web site.
If you have questions about the Digest, articles you'd like to share, of if you would like to subscribe, please email Communications Specialist Caitlin Puffenberger at cpuffenberger@lcldnet.com.
1. Election Day Results Brought Many Firsts for Diverse Candidates Nationwide
NPR, 11/8/17
Among those elected last night were Danica Roem of Virginia, the first transgender woman to hold a state office; Wilmot Collins, Montana’s first black mayor; Ravi Bhalla, New Jersey’s first Sikh mayor; and Kathy Tran, a Vietnamese refugee and the first Asian-American woman elected to Virginia’s House of Delegates.
2. Black on Bay Street: Hadiya Roderique Had it All, but Still Could Not Fit In
The Globe and Mail, 11/4/17
“The pressure to belong intensifies as you get closer to the summit,” writes Canadian lawyer Hadiya Roderique on her experience as a double minority at a top-tier firm. “Each raised eyebrow, each slight, each difference felt like a message that I didn’t fit.”
3. A Widening Gap: The Unequal Growth Rate in Gender and Racial Diversity
ACC Docket, November 2017
“Unless corporations begin replicating their successes in gender diversity initiatives in the scope of racial diversity, the problem will only become worse going forward,” write Mark Roellig, former LCLD Board Member and Chief Technology Officer at MassMutual, and Coco Xiao, 2017 1L Scholar.
4. It’s Lonely at the Top for Big Law’s Few Black Leaders
The American Lawyer, 11/2/17
“There are individual successes, but even reaching 2 percent African-American partners seems high at this point,” says LCLD Member Ben Wilson (Beveridge & Diamond) on the dearth of African-American leadership in the legal profession. LCLD Member Maurice Watson (Husch Blackwell) is also among the small number of African-American managing partners of top law firms.
5. Can We Talk About the Gender Pay Gap?
The Washington Post, 10/26/17
Here’s one way to look at the gender pay gap: Female lawyers and judges started working for free on October 23. (See data visualizations on the gender pay gap and arguments against it.)
6. Research: Men Get Credit for Voicing Ideas, but Not Problems. Women Don’t Get Credit for Either.
Harvard Business Review, 11/2/17
“The status bump and leader emergence that resulted from speaking up with ideas only happened for men, not for women,” writes Sean Martin on his research on gender gaps in employee voice.
