Diversity & Inclusion Resources

Diversity & Inclusion Resources

KBA Resources

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award (new in 2023) Review the press release about the presentation of the 2023 Award to Lewis Thomason.

Strategic Inclusion Plan- Approved by the KBA Board of Governors on September 28, 2022 [Around the Bar summary in January 2023 DICTA]

• October 5, 2023 Why We Need to Put the Diversity Thumb on the Scales featuring Joyce Espy Searcy, Founding Director for the Office of Community Relations at Belmont University
• February 21, 2023 How to Retain Top Talent by Creating a Culture of Meaning featuring Mary H. Beard, Senior HR Counsel for HCA Healthcare
• September 29, 2022 Taking DE&I to the Next Level: Unbiased Mentorship and Sponsorship featuring Luther Wright, Ogletree
• February 15, 2022, Reimagining Public Safety CLE featuring LaKenya Middlebrook
• October 15, 2021, Difficult Conversation featuring Dr. Avice Reid 
• October 7, 2021, How to Succeed in Prioritizing and Sustaining Diversity in Today’s Legal Practice featuring Cornell Kennedy
• June 23, 2021, Book Club Discussion - The New Jim Crow- Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
• February 11, 2021 "Combatting Racial Bias in the Judicial System" CLE Webinar
• 21-Day Racial Equity Habit-Building Challenge
• 10-1-20: Diversity Program: Removing Obstacles - Finding Innovative Solutions to Tackle Bias and Social Injustice Video
  • Summary of Small Group Discussions
• 10-3-19: Diversity Program- Diversity & Inclusion Theory Meets Realty
• 9-25-18: Diversity Program: A Call to Action: From Awareness to Commitment
       Action Items – Attorneys
       Action Items – Law Students
   

DICTA Articles: What I Learned about Inclusion and Why It Matters

December 2024: Male Attorney or Bear?
October 2024: Dia de Los Muertos and Grief in a Time of Solitude
August 2024: From Albania to East Appalachia
May 2024: Another Perspective Of a Not Guilty Verdict
March 2024: We are Lawyers
February 2024: I am the Attorney
December 2023: Is Your Definition of Inclusion Truly Inclusive
November 2023: Don't Judge a Book By Its Cover
October 2023: What Person First and Identity First Language Means to Me
August 2023: I Am Different
June 2023: Don't Avert Your Eyes
May 2023: Inclusion, Whether You Like It or Not: A Marine's Perspective
February 2023: KBA, DEI Includes "The Bench"
January 2023: The Bijou Theatre Second Balcony
December 2022: A Call to Prayer: Creating Space for Religious Diversity and Inclusion Within the Legal Profession
November 2022: The Missing Piece
October 2022: The Necessity of Inclusion in the Legal Profession
September 2022: Use Your Words
August 2022: Inclusion Matters, But We Have Failed
June 2022: And This is Why Belonging Matters
May 2022: Hearing Each Other
April 2022: The Journey
March 2022: Grace in Diversity
February 2022: Becoming An Intentional Change Agent
January 2022: Because I Can't Forget
December 2021: Every Person Matters
November 2021: Learning to Listen: Why Inclusion Matters
October 2021: Words Matter - Join the Conversation
September 2021: The Importance of Visibility to Diversity and Inclusion Efforts
August 2021: I Am Not Ok
June 2021: Being Seen: How Daredevil and Otis Stephens Changed My Life
May 2021: Creating Inclusive Environments
April 2021: Belonging
March 2021: On Being Normal
February 2021: Step Into The Arena (Lest We Miss Out On Each Other)
January 2021: Truly Heard
December 2020: Racial Equality: A Knoxville View
November 2020: Strength in Perspective
October 2020: Journey to a Better Understanding

ABA Resources

• Diversity & Inclusion Resources
• Two Dozen GCs Bring Diversity to Law Firms
• ABA Report: Excluded & Alone: Examining the Experiences of Native American Women in the Law and a Path Towards Equity

Local Community Resources

Knoxville Black Business Directory, created by Damon Rawls with the Innovation Digital Agency, allows visitors to browse Black-owned businesses in 26 categories. The directory can be used to find and support Black businesses.

Knoxville Soul Newsletter - Sign up for the Wednesday newsletter on what matters most to Knoxville's black community.
Angela Dennis, KnoxNews Race & Equity Reporter

Resources to understanding race relations in the U.S.

• Potential Action Steps

Fostering Diversity Opportunities

1.    Develop a mentoring relationship with a diverse attorney (suggestion, define to include attorneys of a different race, ethnicity, gender, religion, age, disability, sexual orientation and gender identity, marital status, veteran status, parental status, socioeconomic status, or other diversity dimension).
2.    Mentor a law student of a diverse background.
3.    Mentor a diverse high school or college student interested in becoming an attorney.
4.    Invite a diverse attorney to KBA programs and events and introduce him or her
to your colleagues.
5.     Speak with a diverse attorney about the benefits of KBA membership.
6.      Add diversity-related topics to your KBA Section/Committee meeting agenda.
7.    Recommend a diverse attorney to speak on a KBA CLE panel.
8.     Encourage a diverse attorney to run for elected office.
9.    Attend a function hosted by an affinity bar association.
10.    Learn about the impact of subtle, unconscious and implicit bias by visiting Project Implicit at http://www.projectimplicit.net/index.html and take one of the surveys.
11.    Read an article or attend a CLE about how generational differences may impact communication styles, motivation for success, and work values.
12.    Recommend a diverse attorney to sit on a not-for-profit board.
13.    Consider the overall diversity of perspectives, backgrounds, and personalities when pulling together a team or working on a project.

 

Best Practices and Measures of Success

• Hiring Guide
• Best Practices in Achieving Workforce Diversity in Government
• NALP Diversity Best Practice Guide
• Next Steps in Understanding and Increasing Diversity & Inclusion in Large Law Firms
• Fostering Diversity in Public Service
• Effectively Managing Employees to Get Results in a Diverse Workplace such as American Express
• How to Measure the Return on Investment of Training Initiatives by Edward Hubbard
• Measuring the Value and Impact of Workforce Diversity by Edward Hubbard
• Beyond Diversity - Inclusiveness in the Legal Profession
• Diversity Metrics
• Proven Strategies for Addressing Unconscious Bias in the Workplace
• Unleashing the Power of Diversity through Inclusive Leadership
• Reinventing the Job Interview - An episode from the podcast “Work Life” by organizational psychologist Adam Grant. This episode is about reinventing the traditional interview, and many of these concepts can be applied to legal recruiting, specifically with diverse candidates. 
• 2021 Racial Equity in Public Policy Message Guide

Diversity Pipeline

• Access Group Diversity Pipeline Programs
   

Articles, Initiatives, Charts, Studies, and Surveys on Diversity

• Written in Black & White: Exploring Confirmation Bias in Racialized Perceptions of Writing Skills
• Association of Legal Administrators Diversity Toolkit
• 14 Ways to Discuss Diversity in Your Law Firm
• 10 Ways to Combat Diversity Fatigue
• National Associate of Women Lawyers Annual Surveys on Retention and Promotion of Women in Law Firms
• Leading New York Law Firms Lag in Including Women and Minorities
• Coca-Cola Pushes for Diversity
• Diversity Gap A Growing Threat To BigLaw Bottom Lines
• Why Diversity Matters Report by McKinsey & Company
• Law is the least diverse profession in the nation, and lawyers aren’t doing enough to change that, by The Washington Post
• Storm on the Horizon: Implications of the Growing Diversity Disparity Between Corporate America and their Law Firms
• Lessons Learned by Mark Roellig
• How to Be a Better White Person in 2020
• Being Poor
• Straight White Male: The Lowest Difficulty Setting There Is
• Women lawyers of color share challenges of surviving in legal profession
• LEFT OUT and LEFT BEHIND: The Hurdles, Hassles, and Heartaches of Achieving Long-Term Legal Careers for Women of Color
• ABA Law Firm Diversity Report - 2-19-21
• Federal Public Defender's Office Diversity Self-Assessment Scorecard for Calendar Year 2021
• Diversity Best Practices Proposal - Federal Public Defender's Office

Trial Work & Bias

• Subtle Contextual Influences on Racial Bias in the Courtroom
• Trial Teams and the Power of Diversity
• Jurors' Perceptions of Trial Team Diversity
• Your Unconscious Bias Trainings Keep Failing Because You’re Not Addressing Systemic Bias
• https://youtu.be/AGUwcs9qJXY  - It explains how various laws, funding, and criminal justice policies resulted in poor black households, which results in generational issues.