The Bridge
PLDIC News
May 27, 2020

Moving Pittsburgh's Legal Community Forward, Together 
The Bridge - PLDIC News
To keep communication open and robust during this unprecedented period of challenge and uncertainty, the PLDIC is publishing The Bridge - PLDIC News every other week. If you missed any issues of The Bridge , catch up here . Know someone who may be interested in receiving The Bridge and other PLDIC communications? Direct them to our website and scroll to the bottom of the homepage to subscribe!
Save the Date for Upcoming Coalition Webinar
What’s on Your Mind? 
And How Can We Help?
A PLDIC Webinar Providing Support to Pittsburgh’s Diverse Lawyers
June 8, 2-3 p.m. ET

In this Webinar, Eric Cottle, Partner, K&L Gates; and Chatón T. Turner, Senior Associate Counsel/Senior Director Disabilities Services, UPMC, will offer their best advice to diverse lawyers navigating the new post-COVID world. They will answer your questions, which you'll have the opportunity to submit both in advance and during the program. General encouragement will also be on tap.

Watch your inbox for more details and to RSVP.
Towards a Culture of Inclusion: Goal No. 1:
Providing All Members the Tools They Need to Be Able to Better Retain Diverse Lawyers
Towards a Culture of Inclusion is a year-long series of programs with three concrete goals.
The first: to ensure that all Coalition members are equally fluent on issues relating to the retention of diverse lawyers and have the tools to address them.
Why is this important?  
Because the Pittsburgh legal community is not very diverse, it is difficult for Coalition members to both attract and retain new diverse lawyers. Everyone wants community and diversity begets diversity. This is why working together makes sense; why forming a coalition made sense. We all need to be better at retaining diverse lawyers if any one of us is going to be successful.
Who will be responsible for making sure this goal is met?  
It is the responsibility of Coalition leadership to design an initiative that is responsive to the needs of its members. What do they want to learn? Where do they need the most help? Before the pandemic, Coalition ED Susan Yohe had intended to meet with each member to ask these questions. Maybe that will still happen. If it can’t, we will find another way to gain this intelligence. Then, it is the responsibility of the members to show up to receive what is on offer.
How will we measure whether the goal is met?  
The Coalition will keep records of who participates in the series and share materials and resources along the way with everyone.
Duquesne University Law School to Partner with HCBU Xavier University of La.
Coalition member Duquesne University School of Law has announced that it will partner with Xavier University of Louisiana in hopes of attracting Xavier graduates who aspire to be lawyers. Xavier is the only Catholic, historically Black institution of higher learning in the U.S.

Duquesne Law Dean and Coalition Board member April Barton said, "Diversity makes us better. Our institutions are stronger when we are diverse, we make better decisions when disparate viewpoints are considered, and we solve problems more creatively when community members come from a variety of perspectives, cultures, and backgrounds."
Two Leaders from PLDIC Member Organizations Make List of Most Influential Black Executives
Two local executives with Coalition connections have made Savoy Magazine's 2020 list of Most Influential Black Executives in Corporate America.

Cain Hayes is President and CEO of member Gateway Health and Evan Frazier is Senior Vice President of Community Affairs at member Highmark Health. Frazier spoke to Coalition members in Spring 2019 about The Advanced Leadership Initiative (TALI), a program he founded in partnership with Carnegie Mellon University which aims to build the pipeline of African American leadership in Pittsburgh. In this year’s cohort is Tishekia Williams, Assistant GC at member Duquesne Light.
Cain Hayes
Evan Frazier
Pride Plans Disrupted by COVID-19
...but Pride is Never Cancelled
The Coalition will no longer be marching in the Pride Parade with the ACBA’s LGBT Rights Committee this July, as that has been postponed to the fall.

The Coalition will also not be hosting a Pride month happy hour at 5801 Ellsworth in June because — well, you know. (Hard to imagine, but the last Coalition Happy Hour, pictured to the right, was on February 20!) However, we will be marking Pride with various features throughout the month of June. Keep your eyes open for what's ahead.
Eckert Seamans CEO to Chair
VisitPITTSBURGH Board
Timothy Q. Hudak, CEO of Coalition member Eckert Seamans, has been elected chair of the board of VisitPITTSBURGH, the official tourism site for Pittsburgh.

Hudak, with over 24 years experience representing clients in the hospitality industry, takes over at a time of unparalleled challenge for VisitPITTSBURGH. Learn more.