Law Times

Law Times • may 4, 2009 Canuck initiative aims to improve diversity NEWS C BY ROBERT TODD Law Times anadian lawyers are aligning to improve di- versity in the legal pro- fession, building on a U.S. ini- tiative that has pressed hundreds of major corporations to agree to work with law firms that pro- mote greater inclusiveness. A Call to Action Canada: Diversity in the Legal Profession held a conference last week that brought together in-house coun- sel to begin the legwork to create a movement north of the border. The initiative is led by Aurora Holdings Co. Ltd. vice president and general counsel Joy Casey. She hopes to mirror the U.S. group's work, which in 1999 prompted 500 corporations to sign a state- ment in principle to demonstrate their commitment to enhancing diversity in the legal profession. The U.S. effort is led by General Mills executive vice president, general counsel, and secretary Roderick Palmore. In 2004, he drafted the "Call to Action" mission statement and got the help of senior corporate legal offices to advance his plan, which was a response to a lack of progress and ongoing under- representation of women and minorities in the profession. Over 100 senior legal officers Brandon Fitzgerald, vice president and general counsel of the Minor- ity Corporate Counsel Association Inc. in the U.S., Canadian lawyers got a taste of what their counter- parts to the south are doing. Lucas said DuPont has be- come a leader in the diversity push within the legal field by es- tablishing the business case of do- ing so, even though there is not a long list of studies proving it. "The arguments that it is very good for the bottom line, as far as we are concerned, is ir- refutable," he said. "We, as corporate law func- tions for our major international and global companies believe that having diverse populations, hav- ing diverse vendors, having diverse firms do our legal work, means something," said Lucas. "It is posi- tive, and so as far as we are con- cerned, the business case doesn' need to be made very much be- yond that, because we believe in it. And forward-thinking law firms should understand that we're go- ing to continue to push that, and they must or should get on board, and the ones that don' t board are doing so at their peril." In 1992, DuPont dealt with from some of the largest corpora- tions in the U.S. have since signed on, having agreed to make a com- mitment to diversity in their own legal departments, and to make efforts to work with law firms that distinguished themselves on diversity initiatives, and to cut off firms who demonstrated a lack of interest in the issue. led by co-chairwomen Casey along with Nicky Huq of Huq & Kuegle, was held last week at the University Club of To- ronto. With contributions from speakers including DuPont U.S. vice president and assistant gen- eral counsel Hinton Lucas and The one-day conference, about 350 law firms through- out the U.S., said Lucas. At that time, the company introduced a convergence program in which it pared down the number of law firms it dealt with to 38. "The premise of that was sim- t get on are not permitted to join his organization, as it's their view that corporate law de- partments determine the be- haviour of law firms. "It's an analogy that I'm sure people in firms don't like, but it's an apt one — it's sort of tail and dog: the corporate law de- partments are the dog, and the firms are the tail," he said. "The corporate law depart- ments drive what happens at law firms . . . so that's why the focus at MCCA is on corporate law departments." Jeffery Hewitt, general counsel for the Chippewas of Rama Mnjikaning First Na- tion and president of the In- digenous Bar Association, of- fered a bleak view of Canadian law firm's approach to rep- resenting aboriginal groups. His First Nation's business were the firms that wanted to undertake these kinds of sea changes that we were looking for." Fitzgerald said the MCCA has taken a carrot approach to promoting diversity, creating awards that give law firms in- centive to participate in order to brand themselves as diverse. He added that law firms Hewitt suggested that many lawyers still view ab- originals as "noble savages." "We can't possibly be so- phisticated possibly be on par with some of their tier-one clients," he says in paraphrasing the view of some lawyers. "There clients; we can't large firms with the commit- ment to practise in favour of or for aboriginal clients," he said, adding that this is the fact even though First Nations spend many millions of dollars each year on legal advice. Huq tells Law Times the are exactly zero Nicky Huq (left) and Joy Casey orga- nized A Call to Action Canada: Diversity in the Legal Profession conference in Toronto. holdings include Casino Rama. Hewitt said that when he as- sumed his current role with the First Nation, he was shocked to learn that many of the law firms hired on retainers were charg- ing to learn about them. He received free reign from leader- ship to deal with the problem. "I fired them all," he said. "I terminated every retainer that we had." PAGE 3 for an Oct. 22 summit to move forward with the initiative. Lawyers interested in more information on A Call to Action Canada, or to sign on to the mis- sion statement, can go to www. acalltoactioncanada.com. LT you heard from a number of the participants today, there's still a long way to go." The group has tentative plans conference aimed to raise awareness and get lawyers on board with the initiative, but she notes that "these are not new issues." "In some sense we've made tremendous progress . . . but as ple: we wanted to be partners with our primary law firms," he said. "We wanted to get law firms that were like-thinkers. We wanted law firms that wanted to undertake to deal with . . . diversity." They also wanted to work with firms that operated under alternative billing formats, that utilized technology, and to in- crease the hiring of lawyers from diverse backgrounds. At the end of that project, said Lucas, DuPont worked primarily with medium-sized firms. "These were the firms that were hungry," he said. 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