Towards a Culture of Inclusion continues on January 19 (11:30 a.m. - 1 p.m.) with our Second Conversation on Race: Race in the Legal Community — yes, our legal community. Joining us will be Michelle Silverthorn who will set the stage for conversations among ourselves about how race impacts our offices and the people who work there.

Silverthorn is the Founder and CEO of Inclusion Nation, and a graduate of Princeton and the University of Michigan Law School. She practiced in two large law firms in Chicago and New York before transitioning to her current work.

Koppers is an industry-leading wood preservation technology company that employs more than 2,100 employees globally. Guided by its purpose of Protecting What Matters and Preserving the Future, Koppers is committed to creating a more inclusive culture and diverse workforce to help build a more equitable tomorrow. Welcome, Koppers!

Unintentional bias is a habit, according to Will Cox of the Stereoptyping and Bias Research Lab at the University of Wisconsin. Fortunately, it is a habit which can be broken. Cox gave the more than 140 people who attended his training last month seven tools for breaking the unintentional bias habit (and warned them against three that are not effective). You can find them, along with other take-aways from his presentation, on the Coalition’s website, along with resources related to each of the Coalition’s three prior programs in the Towards a Culture of Inclusion Series. 

To interrupt unintentional bias, Cox recommends increasing your exposure to other people’s experiences and complexity via contact, the media, or images in your environment. Here are three recommendations of media that might help:

Two Coalition members, Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney and Strassburger McKenna Gutnick & Gefsky, both recently named new chief diversity officers — Lloyd Freeman and Danielle Dietrich, respectively. Although Buchanan has had two previous Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officers, Freeman is the first to do the job full-time. Dietrich is Strassburger’s first CDO. Both Freeman and Dietrich have already attended Coalition programs and Dietrich is a member of the Ally-Ready Training Program.

The Homer S. Brown Division of the Allegheny County Bar Association will present the 2021 Drum Major for Justice Award to Tracey McCants Lewis at the annual Dr. Martin Luther King Prayer Breakfast and Program on January 18. McCants Lewis will receive the award for her commitment to providing access to the legal system to those who have been too often denied access. Previously a tenured professor at Duquesne University School of Law, she is currently the Deputy General Counsel and Director of Human Resources for the Pittsburgh Penguins.

The fall 2020 issue of The Duquesne Lawyer includes several articles concerning diversity, including “A Rich Legacy of Diversity,” which profiles Coalition Board Member and K&L Gates litigation partner Eric R.I. Cottle, along with McGuire Woods lawyer Bryan Brantley and Reed Smith lawyer Nicole Prieto. You can read the school’s Promise Statement on Race and Justice there, too.

The Allegheny County Bar Association will host a one-hour non-CLE zoom discussion of how attorneys can volunteer to help low-income transgender, gender non-conforming and non-binary people with legal name changes. The program is free but registration is required.