Diversity and Inclusion

ACC Houston Diversity CLE Webinar:
From Ally to Champion: Strategies For Corporations and Law Firms to Go Past Awareness to Action
July 23, 2020 | 12 noon - 1:00 pm | 1.0 hours CLE (TX)

From Ally to Champion: Strategies For Corporations and Law Firms to Go Past Awareness to Action
Protests across the country are shining a light on racial injustice and inequity. These conversations have extended into workplaces, prompting several corporate CEOs and law firm managing partners to issue statements to express solidarity with their Black employees. Yet, Black lawyers continue to be among the most under-represented in law firms and corporate legal departments across the country. For the past decade or so, the number of Black lawyers in law firms has declined and the legal profession remains one of the least diverse of any profession. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic also poses unique challenges to Black attorneys, which if left unaddressed, have the potential to lead to wider racial equity gaps. This webinar will provide strategies by which law firms and corporations can disrupt racial inequity in their workplaces, as well as provide practical ways to support and sponsor Black employees during the pandemic and beyond. 1.0 hours CLE (TX)
 

In these historically defining times, we invite you to join us in an open forum discussion on current events with your fellow ACC members, in an effort to determine our role in defining next steps.

Come share your thoughts!  Learn what other companies are doing!  Or, help develop ideas for individual contributions!  Grab your afternoon cup of motivation, and join us online on Tuesday, June 30th, at 4:00 PM!

We'll break into randomly assigned, small groups for each of the following conversation starters: 

•        Should companies require diversity and inclusion conversations on the African American experience in the workplace?

•        How should conversations around race (specifically conversations about your African American colleagues) and workplace hurdles be facilitated, and what role, if any, does senior leadership play in this effort?

•        What can you do (or, what are you doing) as legal counsel to start/support those conversations?

•        After the conversation, how do you then take action?

•        Open discussion topic, what didn't get covered in the previous breakouts (if time allows)

This forum is intended to be a group share of thoughts, ideas and solutions, to be given in a safe space for learning and the exchange of ideas.   Everyone is encouraged to join the video chat.  Please register at the following link for what promises to be a thought provoking discussion! The Zoom meeting link will be sent to you prior to the meeting.

It's important, now more than ever, to stay connected!  So we hope to see you online!

The past few weeks have presented multiple and overlapping hardships for organizations – and their members – as a result of nation-wide protests and civil unrest related to the most recent and alarming rash of deaths of African-Americans at the hands of law enforcement.  With the fallout from an-already devastating pandemic’s glaringly disproportionate effects on black and brown communities coupled with these recent tragic events, organizations - including law firms and corporate law departments - throughout America are taking pause.  They want to know what more can they do to fortify their pledge to creating diverse and inclusive work environments, how can they help to disrupt the inherent and institutionalized biases that continue to contribute to these experiences, and how they can best respond to, support, and/or protect themselves from both the positive and negative activism that may be affecting their business.

In offering best - and next - practices that are responsive to the current realities of workplace interactions, we will draw upon any lessons learned so far, and provide an overview of some of the business and diversity trends that leaders in the profession should anticipate for 2020 and beyond.

Through fast neutral processing, our brains create associations early in life, and as adults, these associations become unconscious and automatic. These hidden associations about race, gender and age significantly impact our attitudes and assumptions without our awareness. In this seminar, Delee Fromm, a lawyer, psychologist and author will talk about her book, Understanding Gender at Work: How to Use, Lose and Expose Blind Spots for Career Success. She will discuss how blind spots impact skill development, both positively and negatively in the arenas of negotiation, communication, self-promotion, presence and leadership.

You will learn practical tools and techniques for recognizing and reducing blind spots - yours and others. This information will allow you to increase your options for effectively dealing with diversity blind spots at work while providing mentors and champions of race, gender and age diversity with tools for levelling the playing field.

This program contains 1 hour of EDI Professionalism content and 0.5 hours of Substantive content for the Law Society of Ontario's CPD requirements.

This event is free of charge and open only to in-house counsel who are practicing lawyers called to the bar and current members of a provincial law society; however, you must RSVP to attend. Please RSVP by no later than Tuesday, June 2, 2020.

ACC Ontario reserves the right to review all registrations for eligibility. In-house counsel must be ACC members or meet ACC membership eligibility. Please click here for further details.

Note: Login details for the webinar will be sent by email in advance of the program.

Questions? Please email us.

Hear from the visionaries and the leaders that are making great strides to foster inclusion in the workplace. This candid discussion will take a close look at the various diversity plans and programs being implemented within each company. The panelists will share some of the challenges that they have faced in regards to recruiting, hiring and retention. They will also share the positive outcomes that have resulted because of their focus on diversity and inclusion.

Thanks to our sponsor, Stinson LLP!

AGENDA:
11:45 AM to Noon -- Check-in
Noon to 12:30 PM -- Buffet lunch and networking
12:30 to 1:30 PM -- CLE program presentation

Presenters:
· Kelly McLain, Senior Lawyer at Cargill
· Mike Jackson, Director & Employee Relations Counsel at Target
· Laura Bednarski, Deputy General Counsel & Corporate Secretary at U.S. Bank
· Ann Jenrette Thomas, Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer at Stinson LLP

Moderated by Adam Maier, Partner at Stinson LLP

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We have applied for 1 Elimination of Bias CLE credit.