Bar explores projects to promote diversity

LOS ANGELES -- The State Bar's board will vote on adopting new strategic plan objectives Friday, including options for promoting diversity and inclusion in the legal profession.

Proposals for diversifying the community of attorneys who enter and remain in the profession as well as those who advance to the bench were discussed by the Board of Trustees on Thursday.

The bar is required to submit a plan to the Legislature by March 15 that sets goals related to diversity, elimination of bias and access in the profession.

Effective Jan. 1, the State Bar was legislatively mandated to pursue diversity and inclusion initiatives as part of its public protection mission as written into the fee bill signed by Gov. Jerry Brown in September.

The bar is in the process of collecting more robust data on the demographics, employment status and career satisfaction of its licensees by querying attorneys through their online bar profiles. A survey for attorneys who become inactive or resign is also planned to assess factors involved in decisions to leave the profession.

The bar is uniquely positioned as a standard-setter, by imposing requirements on attorneys and by establishing norms, Robert White, California Minority Counsel executive director, said at Thursday's meeting. The bar requires attorneys to complete bias elimination training, for example, he said.

One proposal is hosting a leadership conference to connect young attorneys to mentors and leaders in the profession. The last leadership conference was held in 2014 and featured talks from Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye and U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier, D-San Francisco.

"A leadership summit is one of the ways we can show that the State Bar is committed to putting its money where its mouth is," said Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Holly J. Fujie, a former State Bar president.

The bar also participates in several pipeline initiatives that introduce the legal profession and law school to students early. The California Partnership Law Academies are three-year law academies embedded within high schools in partnership with the state Department of Education.

The program has demonstrably boosted the graduation rate and academic profiles of students participating in the program since its formation in 2010, according to California LAW executive director Leslie Cunningham.

The 2+2+3 Pathway to Law program, established in 2014, facilitates a path from community college to a four-year university to law school and includes eight law schools and eight universities. Currently, 298 students are in the program, and the first cohort of students is expected to apply to law school this spring.

One long-term goal may be for the diversity of the attorney population and judiciary to match that of the statewide population though interim objectives still need to be established, according to board chair Jason Lee.