Elimination of Bias / DE&I in Law Practice

The legal industry is behind the curve when it comes to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, or DE&I. Firms are starting to recognize the organizational, social, and economic benefits of creating a diverse environment.

This is an opportunity for forward looking firms to differentiate themselves. Setting yourself apart from the crowd can grant you access to talented junior partners your firm might otherwise miss out on.

We sat down with Maya Markovich to talk about elimination of bias and adoption of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the legal industry. We discussed:

• How Unconscious Bias Affects Law Firms
  • Bias In Those You Hire
  • Bias In Those You Serve
• Diverse Law Firms are More Profitable and Effective
• More and More Corporate Clients Want to See DE&I Metrics

How Unconscious Bias Affects Law Firms

Two of the most foundational decisions in any business are choosing the people we work with and the people we work for. Almost everything about your business or your firm is impacted by those fundamental relationships. It’s important that we fully understand all the unconscious factors that play a role in how we make those choices so that we can create a more equitable, diverse, efficient, and profitable environment in which to practice law.

Bias in Those You Hire

It’s normal for people to gravitate towards things they’re familiar with or strategies that have been successful in the past. However,  that natural tendency to replicate past positive experiences can easily get hijacked. Historically many businesses have had artificial constraints placed on what kind of person got the opportunity to be successful. Thankfully those constraints are increasingly becoming a thing of the past, but some of the leftover effects still linger. Eliminating unconscious bias in your hiring process starts with recognizing that when the best candidate walks through your door, they may not necessarily be the person you had in mind.

New tech and data-enabled tools that help firms eliminate their unconscious biases have started hitting the market over the last few years. They create a truly fair hiring process which makes finding talented team members easier, improves hiring diversity, and can even improve satisfaction rates by up to 99% for new placements. Lots of people are very focused on making sure that their place of work is aligned with their values, creating an amazing opportunity for firms to differentiate themselves in the battle for qualified new hires.

Bias in Those You Serve

As a lawyer there are a lot of judgment calls to be made when deciding whether you want to work with a new client or not. Some of those are reasonable things like balancing your team’s workload, however we also make other judgment calls which are less deliberate. The same pull toward past success that colors our view of the hiring process which can also influence our choice of clientele. Identifying and eliminating your biases should be front and center in how you think about growing your firm.

Recent studies have shown that over 80% of people in need of legal help can’t access counsel. That underserved market represents an opportunity for firms who can adjust their business model to meet those client’s needs. Creating a well-honed tech-enabled intake process is a great first step in eliminating your own biases, lowering the barrier to entry for clients, and expanding your firm’s ability to profitably serve more people. Using software to create a flexible intake process means you can quickly understand if a matter is a fit for your firm while also weeding out your own unconscious bias from those discussions.

Diverse Law Firms are More Profitable and Effective

There is a growing recognition that diverse teams outperform the competition. They make matters and projects more successful, and they make the practice of law more equitable. But we, as an industry still have a long way to go, and we need to not let up on making diversity a priority.

Prospective clients as well as new junior associates are prioritizing true non-performative equity in and equity out programs as they look for a firm who fits with their priorities. “Equity in” refers to things like DE&I programs, hiring and retention of diverse candidates, leadership diversity, and diversity in the firm’s technology and services supply chains. Where “equity out” is focused on the impact that organization’s products or services have on the people it serves and remedying potential unintended consequences.

Whether it’s potential clients, new hires, or even investors, the marketplace is looking for answers to these questions. Increasingly investors are aware of the documented fact that companies are much more successful if they have strong equity in and equity out policies. The math is simple, businesses grow much faster when they’re built to serve more than just one slice of the potential customer base.

The firms who are paying attention have a clear understanding that diverse teams consistently outperform the competition and deliver superlative results. These teams not only have access to matters which might have been overlooked in the past, but they also have the tech to serve those clients in ways that wouldn’t have been possible thirty years ago. They’re using modern technology like artificial intelligence tools for things like algorithmic bias detection and mitigation.  But they’re also using legal tech to streamline their client intake and other turn-the-crank work that tends to eat up time. It’s letting firms have the bandwidth and the diverse viewpoints they need to work on closing the huge access to justice gap that exists while also playing a crucial role in this push for broad social change.

More and More Corporate Clients Want to See DE&I Metrics

The legal industry is sometimes decades behind other industries in several areas.  Corporate general counsel and legal departments are under increasing pressure. It is being asked to justify costs, increase efficiency, adopt technology, and perhaps, most importantly, it is being asked to connect more cohesively with their organization’s goals and values.

Corporate clients have been requesting more diverse teams for a while. But we’re also seeing that the legal industry is responding to market pressures to increase equity in whatever sphere they operate. As consumers of legal tech, firms are asking more questions about DE&I in tech companies they’re considering. Firms aren’t just looking at the “Equity In” side, what do your hiring & retention policies look like, but also “Equity Out.” What’s the impact your technology has on your clients? What does the development team makeup look like? What checks and balances are in place to prevent code bias?

As more major corporations are making DE&I a priority, the legal industry’s lag is coming into stark relief. It’s making the need to catch up inescapably clear and creating a high-profile financial incentive which can drive our entire industry forward.

Wrapping Up

While it’s true that some areas of the legal industry are behind other industries in terms of elimination of bias and adoption of non-performative DE&I practices, change is coming much faster than most people realize.

Especially for our industry in particular, there are extremely clear business cases for why eliminating bias and prioritizing diversity will make your firm demonstrably more successful while also helping to bring about much needed social progress and access to justice.

More Resources:

Making the Case: How Diversity and Inclusion Can Improve Your Firm’s Financial Outlook

Lack of Access to Legal Services