'We just need to be good human beings, be curious, be compassionate, be connected with each other, be conscious of our shared human experience, get ok with being uncomfortable, and whilst I cannot say the future will always be bright, it will certainly be colourful’ (Sheetal Deo)An eye opening and powerful discussion on #Fightclub
for #Lawyers
on #Clubhouse
with @Sheetal Deo, Sapphire P.
, @Fionn Bowd and Scott Simmons
last night on the topic of ’does the future of the legal profession depend on diversity?’.My learnings from the discussion were -
- to discuss ‘why’ the legal profession should have diversity, is creating a context where we are saying to our diverse community that they may not have a place in our profession - we need to be mindful of where we start the diversity discussion!
- to focus on the business case as a justification as to why law firms should be more diverse, creates a context where we are justifying inclusion as a means to maintain or create more profitability, rather than viewing it as our moral, ethical and societal obligation to create a legal profession that defends and upholds the rights of ALL people in our community
- the diversity discussion should start from a point of education, compassion and inclusion
- to create real action and impact on this issue, the profession not only has to be inclusive but has to take one step further and take all of us on the diversity journey together
- we must measure and collect real data on inclusion, and focus on how we create a legal profession that reflects diverse thought, experience, gender, ethnicity and culture.
- aking deliberate, conscious action to support our diverse community is a powerful way to start creating impact and action on diversity in the legal profession.
- shining a spotlight on stories of diversity, both challenging and successful, creates a richer, more meaningful conversation on the issue and creates a pathway for diverse people to step into positions of leadership and advocacy within the legal industry.
I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic, so please comment below! Thank you to my co-hosts, Fionn and Scott, and to our AMAZING guest co-hosts, Sheetal and Sapphire (you were both incredible and inspirational!), and to all our attendees who joined in the discussion, in particular Amy Leong, Burnout Prevention for Leaders
, Lara Wentworth
, Christian van den Bosch
and Dale Stevens
. Join us on Tuesday 9th November at 830pm (ADST) to hear lawyers and legal professionals from around the world discuss controversial topics in law! Our next battle topic - ‘can the billable hour survive a 4 day working week?'If you would like to nominate a controversial topic for us to ‘fight’, please DM @Fionn Bowd, Scott or myself @Karen Finch.
Not on Clubhouse? You can download the app here - https://lnkd.in/g7hJvApN#LawyersFightClub#Events