This panel will discuss how the pandemic and associated economic crisis will impact the legal industry’s diversity and inclusion efforts, and why underrepresented groups are disproportionally affected by the measures organizations and law firms take to withstand a crisis. Other topics of discussion will include unconscious bias in work allocation when workloads decline, how to ensure underrepresented attorneys have work and that there is equitable distribution of “high value” assignments, steps to retain and elevate women attorneys balancing childcare and family needs, what organizations and law firms can do to protect the progress they have made to advance diversity in the profession over the last decade, lessons learned since recovering from the last economic downturn and practical steps organizations and law firms can take to continue to promote diversity in recruiting, promotion and retention so as to avoid the same results, and ways to maintain diversity and inclusion efforts amidst budget constraints.
SpeakersJoan Haratani, Partner, Morgan Lewis
Laura Rees Acosta, Managing Director, Diversity, Equity + Inclusion, Goodwin Procter
Akshay Verma, Head of Legal Operations, Facebook
Sandra S. Yamate, CEO, The Institute for Inclusion in the Legal Profession
Seth Krauss, Chief Legal Officer, Endeavor
Pat Gillette, Speaker, Author and JAMS mediator