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The Bridge
PLDIC News and Resources
November 18, 2020

Moving Pittsburgh's Legal Community Forward, Together
PLDIC Welcomes 35th Member
Wabtec Corporation
Wabtec’s law department, led by Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary Dave DeNinno, joins 13 other law departments and 21 law firms as the PLDIC’s newest member. This rail technology company employs over 27,000 individuals in over 50 countries. 
PLDIC Launches Series of Articles Focusing on Ideas Proven Effective
One of the ideas behind the founding of the PLDIC was that the Pittsburgh legal community could only become more diverse and inclusive by coming together, putting our competitive instincts aside in this one area, and pooling resources and learning from each other. Now, the PLDIC’s Retention Committee, chaired by Keith Whitson, managing partner of Schnader Harrison’s Pittsburgh office, is compiling a series of articles which will focus on member initiatives that have worked in creating more diverse and inclusive law firms and law departments. 
 
First up: Frost Brown Todd’s use of “developmental competencies” to drive recruiting, as well as retention and lawyer development. The firm finds that this practice not only results in better hires and increased retention, but goes a long way to reducing bias in these key areas. We are grateful to Frost Brown Todd for sharing first in our series of “Ideas that Work.”
 
This and other articles can be found on the Members Only page of the PLDIC’s website. Any lawyer in any member organization may sign up for access to the page. 
First Four Months Of Towards a Culture of Inclusion Almost Behind Us
Series Continues in January with Second Conversation on Race: Race in the Legal Community
As we go into the holiday season, the 2020 portion of the Towards a Culture of Inclusion series is winding down with the second meetings of the Ally-Ready Training program participants on December 9 and 10. Here’s a snapshot of what we’ve accomplished thus far:
 
  • About 90 people attended our first program, As an Ally, How Can You Interrupt Bias in the Workplace, presented by Ritu Bhasin.
  • Another 50 or so people attended Bhasin’s second program The Internalization of Bias; What Happens in the Workplace, this one solely for Attorneys of Color.
  • 60 people attended our First Conversation on Race: Race in the Community, led by Pitt Professor Junia Howell, lead author of Pittsburgh’s Inequality Across Gender and Race.
  • About 200 people registered to attend yesterday and tomorrow’s Bias Interruption training with Dr. Will Cox of the University of Wisconsin.
  • Additional resources related to each program were (and will be) sent to attendees and are available to everyone on the PLDIC website. 
  • 57 people signed up for the nine-month Ally-Ready Training program.
 
Towards a Culture of Inclusion will continue on January 19 (11:30 a.m.-1 p.m.) with our Second Conversation on Race: Race in the the Legal Community, led by Michelle Silverthorn. You may register at the link below for this program, which will include a discussion of how race has played out in our own legal community here in Pittsburgh.
For those of you who have signed up for our Ally-Ready certification program, this session is considered a CONVERSATION ON RACE.
PLDIC Leader and University of Pittsburgh CLO to Play Key Role in Biden Transition
Washington Previously Served in the Obama Administration

Geovette Washington, University of Pittsburgh Vice Chancellor and Chief Legal Officer and previous vice-chair of the Coalition’s Board of Directors, has been tapped by President-elect Joe Biden to lead a 21-person Department of Commerce review team.

Read more
pghlegaldiversity.org
Coalition Members: Sign Up for ACBA's Summer Clerkship Program for Diverse Law Students
Deadline to Participate is November 30
ACBA’s award-winning summer clerkship program for diverse first year law students is seeking employers for 2021. The goal of the program is to provide students from groups underrepresented in the legal community with an enriching summer experience that will both enhance their educational and work careers and introduce them to the Pittsburgh legal community. Last year, 11 Coalition members participated in the program. Employers may sign up to participate through November 30. 
Live Webinar CLE on LGBT Employment Rights in the United States
On June 15, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects gay and transgender workers from workplace discrimination. The ACBA will present a live webinar looking at Title VII through the lens of this decision on November 30 from 12-1 p.m.
University of Pittsburgh Acquires Playwright August Wilson Archive
450 Boxes of Materials, Including Hundreds of Writing Tablets and Notebooks, Come to Hillman
Kornelia Tancheva, director of the University of Pittsburgh Library System, calls the August Wilson archive “the most significant archival collection the University of Pittsburgh has acquired.” Working with the August Wilson African American Cultural Center, Pitt is creating a permanent exhibit featuring materials from the archive to open in 2021.
 
The Pulitzer Prize winning playwright is known all over the world for his 10-play American Century Cycle conveying the Black experience in each decade of the 20th century, all but one of them set in Pittsburgh. Wilson honed his craft walking the streets of his Hill District neighborhood and listening to the voices he heard there.
 
The much anticipated film treatment of Wilson’s “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” set in 1927 Chicago, will be released in December, and feature Chadwick Boseman in his last role. 
The Bridge
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