December 2006

EDITOR’S COLUMN

By Jason T. Vail
     One of the missions of the WSBA is to promote diversity in its membership. Because this is a priority for the Bar, my fellow governors on the WSBA Board of Governors and I recently attended a “Celebrate Diversity Conference” held at Gonzaga Law School. This well-attended event was sponsored by the school, the Spokane County Bar Association, and the WSBA. The speeches and discussion by a panel of attorneys and non-attorneys on the necessity of increasing diversity in the legal profession was extremely interesting. But the most thought-provoking issues arose during the small-group breakout sessions, where randomly selected groups of attendees gathered to consider a number of questions concerning the topic of diversity. The clearest message that came from my group’s discussion was that while nearly everyone agrees that diversity is an important value to be pursued, there are a wide variety of opinions on the reasons for this importance and what the concept of “diversity” really means. This has led me to give some thought to these questions myself.
     There is no doubt that in Washington State the proportions of the population currently comprised of minority groups are steadily growing. Unfortunately, this growth is much slower among our state’s attorneys. Today we have a WSBA membership that is considerably less racially and ethnically diverse than the population as a whole, and we see similar disparities in other areas as well, like gender and disability status. For example, the proportion of African American attorneys is only about half of the share of the population as a whole. While Hispanics make up 8.5 percent of the state’s population, they only comprise 1.5 percent of all attorneys. And while women continue to enroll in larger numbers in law schools, they still only make up 35.5 percent of the Bar membership.
     The Bar has approached these disparities in a myriad of ways. For example, the Bar has established an Office of Diversity, which fulfils its mission to increase diversity in the legal profession by undertaking its own initiatives and working with a variety of partners, from the WSBA’s Committee for Diversity and Leadership Institute to minority bar associations, academic institutions and private and public law firms. The Young Lawyer Division has similarly played a proactive role in many ways. In fact, most recently the WYLD has approved an at-large diversity seat to be added to its board of trustees in 2007.
     Still, this all begs the question: why should we, as a Bar Association, take steps to address this issue? As I learned at the Diversity Conference, there is no single right answer. I have only my own perspective and suggest that there are two primary reasons why diversity in the legal profession is critical to our future practices as lawyers.
     First, the public’s perception of the practice of law can be greatly improved when attorneys and judges look more like the public at large. There is little we can do to combat the perception that lawyers are elitist and privileged if we allow disparities to persist and fail to reflect the broader diversity of society at large. Several attorneys and judges at the conference commented that they were able to establish stronger, more trusting relationships with clients and receive more respect while on the bench by virtue of their own minority status when dealing with other members of minority groups. Thus, the public’s faith in and commitment to our system of justice is strengthened when there is a shared commonality between the members of the Bar and members of the public.
     Second, lawyers tend to be leaders, and leadership in the Bar and in the public arena is better when it draws from a pool of candidates that reflects the diversity of the constituencies served. To achieve this, we need to do two things. First, we need to ensure that the groups of new attorneys joining our ranks are more representative of the community at large. There are many ways of accomplishing this; one is through “pipeline projects” like the one just approved by the WSBA Board of Governors. I suggest you look to my “BOG Report” elsewhere in this issue to find out more about WSBA President Dial’s initiative to improve access to our profession to underrepresented groups. Second, we need to be vigilant about ensuring that our governing bodies reflect the membership’s diversity. At-large seats are one way to do this, like the one just created by the WLYD. But I advise caution in this regard: It is important when taking affirmative steps to increase diversity in any body to consider all of the dimensions involved in the concept of “diversity” in order to make the choice meaningful. It is not enough to simply put a person of color or member of some other underrepresented group into an elected seat and assume that this enhances diversity. Diversity isn’t about only color or gender or orientation; it’s about the perspective the person brings to the governing body. We value diversity in our elected bodies because it creates a range of perspectives that contribute to a healthy debate and innovative ideas. Thus, we must look beyond standard categorical criteria in any particular case to consider the entire person and what that person will contribute. For example, imagine trying to choose between two equally qualified candidates, where one is a woman of color who had a privileged urban upbringing and the other is a white man who comes from a significantly disadvantaged rural background. Who will bring a more unique perspective to the governing body? Who is the truly more “diverse” candidate? There is no easy answer to this question. I hope the WLYD – and indeed, all of the bodies within the Bar – will confront these difficult questions in the effort to increase true diversity and not resort to categorically-based decisions. I have faith that they will, especially with all of our involvement, and it will be for the betterment of our Bar.

Jason T. Vail is the WYLD governor on the WSBA Board of Governors. Mr. Vail is a staff attorney with the Seattle office of Northwest Justice Project and is a staff attorney-legal editor with the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law’s legal journal, Clearinghouse Review. He can be reached at 206-464-1519 or jasonv@nwjustice.org. All opinions are solely his own and not those of the WYLD, the WSBA, or De Novo.