Posted by on Friday, March 14, 2014
Welcome to this week’s Diversity Dish and Happy Friday! This week Harvard Law has debuted a new exhibit celebrating women in the law and president of the supreme court in the UK acknowledging how the focus on 24/7 work can effect diversity. Don’t forget to register for the NALP / ALFDP Diversity and Inclusion Summit! Enjoy this week’s Diversity Dish, Happy St. Patrick’s Day and if you aren’t already, follow us on Twitter @CourtneyDredden.
3.7.14 Colleen Welsh writes in the Harvard News Gazette about the “Inspiring Change, Inspiring Us” that debuted in honor of International Women’s Day. The project is a joint effort between 17 student groups at the Law School and also supported by the Harvard Law School Milbank Tweed Fund. “The final 66 portraits include Ruth Bader Ginsburg, U.S. Supreme Court associate justice; Marian Wright Edelman, founder and president of theChildren’s Defense Fund; Bayan Mahmoud Al-Zahran, founder of Saudi Arabia’s first all-female law firm; Hauwa Ibrahim, a Nigerian human-rights lawyer; andBarbara R. Arnwine, president and executive director of the National Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. Other portraits are of academics, activists, public servants, lawyers, and businesswomen.” This is a great project that reminds law students, faculty, staff and visitors of the importance of women in the legal profession.
3.13.14 In the UK, the president of the supreme court, Lord Neuberger, delivered a speech on diversity and argued that overworked men may not be as effective as women who have found professional balance, reports Owen Bowcott. Neuberger remarked that the top firms require an almost 24 hour a day commitment from their employees and that makes it difficult for solicitors who are primarily responsible for caring for their families. Neuberger noted, “[s]olicitors with family responsibilities almost inevitably work fewer hours, and therefore do not carry the same heft as those sad people who have no life but their work. And, in our society, it is far more common for women to have the family responsibilities.” He encouraged a change of culture within the profession and for clients to pressure firms to make diversity a priority.