More unbiased lawyers needed to help senior leadership
I hope to see more diverse attorneys in positions of leadership and management at law firms.
As part of human nature, people are hard wired to gravitate towards people who have had the same experiences and share the same backgrounds as themselves. As part of our subconscious biases, people typically allow more compassion and empathy towards people who share their cultural backgrounds and upbringings. Subconscious bias is real – it is inadvertent, it is dangerous, and it is pervasive. The fact is that people in positions of power typically have had very different experiences and opportunities than a first-generation immigrant or a person whose parents did not go to college or receive a graduate degree. Success begets success. Connections beget connections.
As a younger attorney at a prior firm, I remember sitting at an airport café in Montreal with my mentor after finishing a long day with the client, eating a very bad (yet very tasty) chicken parmesan pasta dish. I said to my mentor, “I don’t know why I have this feeling, but it seems that I need to be twice as good as the other associates to receive the same treatment.” My mentor at the time turned to me and said, “It’s true. But you have nothing to worry about, because you are twice as good.” I will always remember the feeling I had when I digested his response – it felt like a hard blow. While my mentor was trying to give me a compliment, I felt sick to my stomach. I was hoping what I felt was not real. I was hoping he would affirm that I was viewed just the same as my other colleagues, that I was judged by the same standards, that I had nothing to worry about. That my feeling was a paranoid thought that was not rooted in reality.
In the legal profession, a younger attorney’s success depends largely in part by the training the attorney receives. Does the younger attorney have a strong mentor who is willing to devote the time and energy t o teach the tricks-of-the trade? Is that mentor willing to allow room for mistakes and improvement? Is that mentor committed to bringing the attorney into key relationships? As a younger attorney, I was lucky to have two very strong mentors. Without their guidance and support throughout my career, I would not be where I am today. I believe that as more diverse attorneys step into leadership roles, they will play a critical role in mentoring and ensuring the success of the next generation. As more diverse attorneys step into leadership roles, I am hopeful that subconscious biases will continue to be diluted and in a perfect world, be eliminated. That people will be judged solely by their performance and skill, and not by the color of their skin or their ethnic or cultural background.
