On behalf of the Austin Bar Association’s DEI Committee, I am excited to invite members of the Austin legal community to our annual Equity Summit.
This year’s CLE program will be held on Thursday, May 23, 2024, from 12:30 to 5:30 p.m. at the Austin Community College Rio Grande Campus, 1212 Rio Grande St, Austin, TX 78701.
The theme for this year’s program is “Equity Is for Everyone.”To that end, this year’s panels and presentations will focus on the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the legal profession—not just on behalf of our clients, but also within the legal community. It will also provide a legislative update on recent changes to the DEI landscape in Texas.
This year’s Equity Summit also builds upon the work of previous programs. In 2021, the inaugural equity summit focused on implicit bias and systemic hurdles (e.g., land development codes, inequitable access to the legal system, etc.).
The following year, the DEI committee shined a spotlight on gender equity in the profession.
In 2023, the focus was broader, looking at “Identity at Work”—thereby highlighting both barriers and best practices from the perspective of lawyers of various backgrounds. And while many people think of these only in terms of race, ethnicity, religion, and gender identity, we also focused on other “identities”—e.g., as caregivers of family members with special needs, practicing with disabilities, and other “identities” that may not be visible to the eye.
Given the heightened attention these issues have in our current political and cultural discourse, we are hopeful the 2024 Equity Summit can build upon the success of the prior programs to serve Austin lawyers and, in turn, the communities that we serve and represent. This year’s panels and presentations will again bring together a range of voices and experience—because, as our theme says, “Equity Is for Everyone.” More importantly, we hope to give all attendees some tools they can bring back to their communities and the people they serve to assist in resetting the conversation: “DEI” is not a caricature or a racially charged pejorative, nor is it a menacing, amorphous bogeyman (See, e.g., “go woke, go broke”). Each of the letters represents a concept that has meaning and value: Diversity. Equity. Inclusion. I recognize that, among lawyers, there may be respectful disagreement about how we embody those values in the workplace and within the profession, but hopefully this summit will help provide some tools to guide these conversations and an opportunity for internal reflection.
In addition, this year’s summit will also focus on another category of lawyers who are traditionally overlooked in DEI-themed discussions: first-generation lawyers. Regardless of any other “identity,” first-gen lawyers face unique challenges in the profession—starting in law school (if not before) and continuing into their legal careers. We will look forward to hearing from some of our first-gen peers about their experiences, including what they learned in their journey that would pave the way for future waves of first-gen lawyers.
Finally, recognizing that conversations around diversity, equity, and inclusion cannot be contained to a finite time or space, we hope that all attendees will join us for a post-CLE happy hour and networking event (details TBA). In the meantime, please register for this year’s annual Equity Summit at austinbar.org.