Diversity

See also Women in the Legal Profession.

For additional diversity resources, visit Diversity Initiatives.

Also see Research & Statistics > Diversity & Demographics.

Diversity Best Practices Guide
NALP, 2009. This compilation of bulleted recommendations, revised by the NALP Diversity Section, is designed to assist legal employers in moving from abstract discussions about diversity to practical implementation of diversity strategies and initiatives. Suggestions are drawn from industry research and from interviews with law firm professionals. NALP members are invited to submit additional best practices for addition to this guide. Available as a free PDF download.

Moving Diversity Forward: How to Go from Well-Meaning to Well-Doing, Verna Myers

American Bar Association, 2011. As a high-profile diversity consultant, Verna Myers knows first-hand that diversity in law firms can be a difficult thing to comprehend and reform. Managing partners are deeply perplexed by the increasing number of people of color who come into legal positions hopeful, then exit quickly thereafter, disillusioned and disengaged. In this superb book, she offers expert guidance on ways to build bridges that create real opportunities and deeper relationships with people of color. Examples are provided, including big and small actions to ensure that power and opportunity are shared. While this book addresses the legal workplace, its message is applicable to all settings.
Available in NALP's Bookstore

Lawyers, Lead On: Lawyers with Disabilities Share Their Insights

American Bar Association Commission on Mental and Physical Disability Law, 2011. Lawyers, Lead On presents letters from lawyers with disabilities ranging from visible to non-apparent disabilities who work in a wide variety of practice settings, including with private law firms of all sizes, government agencies, corporations, and public interest organizations. The letters are organized by the major subject areas they address: the transition to law school, disability and disclosure, disability identity, the foundation of a meaningful career, awareness-building in the profession, and reflections on the disability rights movement. In addition to providing superb advice for law students and lawyers with disabilities, this collection of letters also provides compelling insights for career counselors and recruiters, and for anyone who wants to better understand the experiences of persons with disabilities.
Available in NALP's Bookstore

After the JD Monographs on Diversity in the Legal Profession
The After the JD (AJD) study is a longitudinal study of the career choices and subsequent career progression of a nationally representative sample of lawyers who were first admitted to the bar in the year 2000. The study was designed and is overseen by an interdisciplinary group of scholars and funded by multiple institutions, among them NALP, the NALP Foundation, and the American Bar Foundation. It is the first research effort of its kind to examine the early careers of a cohort of more than 4,500 newly certified lawyers. NALP Senior Social Science Researcher Gita Wilder, who is a member of the AJD Executive Coordinating Committee, has written a series of four monographs based on the first wave of AJD findings. Three of these monographs relate to diversity in the profession: Race-Ethnicity in the Legal Profession (2008), Are Minority Women Lawyers Leaving Their Jobs (2008), and Women in the Profession: Findings from the First Wave of the After the JD Study (2007). These monographs are available free of charge for viewing or download as PDFs at Research & Statistics > After the JD Monographs.

American Bar Association Resource Guide: Programs to Advance Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Legal Profession
American Bar Association President's Advisory Council on Diversity, 2000. This guide, available free online, presents profiles of a number of different programs designed to increase diversity in the legal community. Those interested in increasing the recruitment, retention, and advancement of minority lawyers will find both tips and examples in this guide found at http://www.abanet.org/leadership/recmenu.html.

2010 Beyond Diversity: Inclusiveness in the Legal Workplace
Colorado Campaign for Inclusive Excellence, 2010. This superb 344-page manual begins with definitions of inclusiveness and then presents six major sections: laying the internal foundations, creating external support systems, integrating inclusiveness within an organization, integrating inclusiveness into external relationships and communication, implementation of an action plan, and case studies. Throughout, the manual is detailed, specific, and abounding in forms and examples of what law firms are doing. The manual is available at www.legalinclusiveness.org. Colorado Campaign members may access it free of charge; others may access the manual and other password-protected content on the site by becoming a subscriber (as explained on the site). The site, www.legalinclusiveness.org, also carries a variety of news items and resources related to diversity and inclusiveness in the legal workplace.

ALA's Diversity Toolkit
Association of Legal Administrators, 2004. The Association of Legal Administrators Diversity Toolkit is a useful guide created by ALA's Diversity Task Force, chaired by Stephen Dempsey of Nixon Peabody, LLP. The Toolkit is designed to assist legal organizations in creating, implementing and maintaining diversity initiatives. It includes examples of diversity policies from law firms and corporations, national demographics, reasons for increased demand, implementation issues, and several resources including other organizations such as the Society for Human Resource Management, speakers, and articles. Available as a PDF download at www.alanet.org/diversity/DiversityToolkit.pdf.

Reasonable Accommodations for Attorneys with Disabilities
EEOC, 2006. The EEOC has developed a 22-page document outlining examples of reasonable accommodations and answering questions about when and how accommodations should be requested and provided. http://www.eeoc.gov/facts/accommodations-attorneys.html.

The National Conference on the Employment of Lawyers with Disabilities: A Report from the American Bar Association
This excellent resource on increasing employment opportunities for lawyers with disabilities – and best practices for law firms – is a transcript of all sessions presented at the 2006 ABA conference, plus an appendix suggesting additional resources. The report is available free as a downloadable PDF at http://www.abanet.org/disability/, along with additional resources.

Building on the Promise of Diversity, R. Roosevelt Thomas, Jr.

American Management Association, 2006. Candid and provocative, this is not a book about "numbers" or "isms" - or a book that views diversity only in terms of race and gender. Thomas addresses the reasons so many well-meaning diversity initiatives fail and why even award-winning diversity initiatives become "stuck" unless they step beyond the myths and conventional thinking surrounding diversity management. In Thomas's view, the goals of strategic diversity management should be to recognize diversity mixtures, analyze them accurately, and make quality decisions in the midst of differences, similarities, and tensions. "Accept," says Thomas, "that a realistic goal is not to eliminate diversity tension but to use it as a catalyst to address key issues."
Read Bulletin review (PDF)
Available in NALP's Bookstore

Cracking the Code: Unlocking the Potential of Future Leaders in the Legal Profession

West, 2010. This book is designed to help legal practices embrace, integrate, and retain the new generation of lawyers by: revealing their workplace expectations; highlighting best practices from organizations whose policies are increasing new hire retention rates; sharing practical solutions for bridging the gap between senior managers and new hires; showcasing several new innovative programs that address gender, mentoring, performance review delivery, and workplace protocol issues; and sharing a comprehensive discussion guide for building strategic alliances with new hires. A speaker at past NALP conferences, Judith Finer Freedman consults, researches, and lectures on the dynamics of work-life effectiveness, generational diversity, gender bias, and mentoring and is the founder of The Balanced Worker Project. This book is addressed to any senior organizational leader, recruiting, or professional development executive concerned about retention and workplace viability.
Read Bulletin review (PDF)
Available in NALP's Bookstore

Diverse Teams at Work, Lee Gardenswartz and Anita Rowe

Society for Human Resource Management, 2003. This is a practical guide to making differences within work teams an asset, not a liability. The authors include an analysis of how diversity shapes expectations and team behavior - from race, gender, and age, to subtler differences such as education, work function, and level. Numerous worksheets are included to help guide effective team processes, whether within your office or department or in other team settings. Guidelines for starting teams, integrating new members into teams, diagnosing trouble spots, and resolving conflicts are also provided.
Available in NALP's Bookstore

Global Diversity: Winning Customers and Engaging Employees within World Markets, Ernest Gundling and Anita Zanchettin

Nicholas Brealey International, 2007. This book is designed for organizations that want to sell their services in international markets, manage foreign offices more effectively, or extend their diversity initiatives abroad. It addresses key cultural variables and diversity issues related to eight major markets: China, Egypt, India, Japan, Mexico, Russia, the UK, and the US. Each country is explored in depth, specifically its cultures within cultures. The appendices also address diversity issues in Canada, South Africa, and Sweden.
Available in NALP's Bookstore

Recruiting and Retaining a Diverse Workforce: New Rules for a New Generation, Natalie Holder-Winfield

Based on interviews with professionals from various backgrounds, Natalie Holder-Winfield, a past Professional Development Institute speaker, provides managers, employees, and students with advice for navigating the overlay issues of cultural and generational diversity. Her book is not specifically targeted to the legal profession, but the issues are applicable to the legal workplace. For those already steeped in literature related to diversity and inclusion, much of this book may be too basic, but for others it may lead to helpful reflection on the ways some within our organizations have felt excluded.
Published by First Books and available from booksellers.

Minority Corporate Counsel Association (MCCA)

MCCA's web site offers a number of free online publications (in PDF format) that can all be accessed through the "Research" link on the www.mcca.com home page. These include an excellent online publication entitled Mentoring Across Differences: A Guide to Cross-Gender and Cross-Race Mentoring, as well as: A Set of Recommended Practices for Law Firms — Creating Pathways to Diversity: An Overview; The Myth of the Meritocracy: A Report on the Bridges and Barriers to Success in Large Law Firms; and Perspectives from the Invisible Bar: Gays and Lesbians in the Profession.
Go to www.mcca.com and click on the "Research" link to access these publications.

NACE's Guide to Diversity Recruiting

National Association for Colleges and Employers (NACE), 2003. NACE is an association of undergraduate career services offices and employers that recruit on college campuses, and thus this NACE manual is not targeted specifically to legal recruiting. However, almost all of the strategies suggested — from working with minority student groups on campus to developing relationships with faculty to making interviewing "facially neutral" — apply equally to legal recruiting. Legal issues surrounding diversity recruiting are also addressed, as are retention issues.
Read more
Available at www.naceweb.org

Recruiting, Hiring, and Retaining Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Attorneys: Strategies for Employers

NALP, revised 2008. This pamphlet developed by the NALP GLBT Section explains the importance of fostering a workplace that is nondiscriminatory and supportive of all attorneys through nondiscrimination policies, recruitment and hiring strategies, a supportive workplace, and compensation and benefits.
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Available in NALP's Bookstore

To Be Out or Not to Be Out? — Information for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Job Applicants

NALP, 2005. This full-color tri-fold pamphlet from the NALP GLBT Committee discusses factors to consider when deciding whether to be out during a job search, as well as factors GLBT job applicants should consider when choosing an employer.
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Available in NALP's Bookstore

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Evaluations

You Get What You Measure: Lawyer Development Frameworks and Effective Performance Evaluations, Scott Westfahl

NALP, 2008. If a law firm wants to develop its next generation of leaders, the firm must first identify what skills and traits those lawyers should possess and then implement performance evaluations to measure individual and organizational lawyer development accordingly. This book presents a range of ideas from the corporate world that are now being introduced successfully into the legal profession. Numerous charts and sample forms are also featured throughout the book.
Read Bulletin review (PDF)
Available in NALP's Bookstore

Fair Measure: Toward Effective Attorney Evaluations, Joan C. Williams and Consuela A. Pinto

ABA Commission on Women, 2008. This handbook offers constructive guidance on how to develop and implement an evaluation process based on objective, unbiased criteria for successful associate performance. Examples of evaluation forms and checklists are included.
Available in NALP's Bookstore

How Associate Evaluations Measure Up

The NALP Foundation, 2006. This national study of performance assessments provides quantifiable data that document variances in the format and delivery of evaluations; who is involved in developing, compiling, and analyzing the information provided by evaluators; how evaluations are communicated to associates; the degree to which evaluations motivate associates; and the impact of the evaluation process on the firm. In addition, the report contains detailed analysis of data from both law firm managers and associates on their perceptions about the role and value of evaluations and whether/how they influence associates.
Available from The NALP Foundation

Lawyers' Professional Development, Ida O. Abbott

NALP, 2002. This comprehensive handbook for professional development administrators includes discussion of the evaluation process.
View Table of Contents (PDF)
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Available in NALP's Bookstore

Leading the Legal Recruitment Team: A Recruitment Administrator's Handbook, Gayle Englert

NALP, 2001. This comprehensive handbook on recruitment administration includes samples of evaluations.
View Table of Contents (PDF)
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Available in NALP's Bookstore

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International

Careers in International Law, 3rd Edition, Salli A. Swartz, Editor

American Bar Association, ABA Career Series, 2008. Rather than being a single explanation of career paths in international law, this volume suggests some of the breadth, variety, and substance of the field by presenting chapters by lawyers in the field.
Available in NALP's Bookstore

International Directory of Lawyer Quafication

NALP Foundation, 2009. As law firms expand across the globe and lawyers travel from their home countries to be educated and work elsewhere, both law firm and law school professionals increasingly find themselves needing to understand the different ways lawyers are educated and licensed to practice in countries around the world. This directory provides detailed assistance.
Read more (PDF)
Available in hard copy or CD form from www.nalpfoundation.org.

International Bar Association

The International Bar Association web site — http://www.ibanet.org — includes a publications catalog with resources related to international law.