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Austin Bar's Equity Committee Celebrates First Anniversary
Taking a Look Back
BY JUDGE MAYA GUERRA GAMBLE
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One year ago, Austin Bar President Kennon Wooten began her term by asking us all to be her neighbor. She ended her term with a neighborhood conversation on equity in Austin, in the law, and in our lives: The thought-provoking and successful inaugural Equity Summit, held on May 14, 2021. One of her first acts as president was to create the Equity Committee, to which I was appointed chair. I am proud of all the committee accomplished in its first year:
• The development of the Austin Bar’s Equity Statement: The Austin Bar Association holds diversity and inclusion to be a core component of our mission to “enhance the legal profession, administration of justice, and our community through education, networking, and public service.” We recognize that the law plays a central role in combating inequality, and we believe that prioritizing equity and diversity and combating systemic bias makes our organization stronger and our profession better. We strive in all our actions and initiatives to encourage, support, and celebrate the diverse experiences and voices of our members and the communities we serve, to lift up every attorney in Austin, and to make our community a welcoming place for all people.
• A 21-Day Racial Equity Habit-Building Challenge, in which Austin Bar members signed up for daily emails featuring readings, podcasts, and videos designed to explore and deepen our awareness and engagement in issues of racial equality.
• Four meetings of the Equity Multi-Media Club explored the award-winning documentary “13 th ,” the books “So You Want to Talk About Race” and “How to Be an Anti-Racist,” and the podcast “This Land.”
• Highlighting diversity and equity in Austin Lawyer through featured articles in the president’s column and in the Equity Spotlight column, with guest authors writing about Hispanic Heritage Month, Holidays Around the World, Black History Month, and Combating Implicit Bias to Retain Minority Talent.
• A fantastic CLE on the history of the Austin Bar viewed through an Equity lens.
• An Implicit Bias Jury Instructions sub-committee developed and refined a jury charge addressing implicit or unconscious bias, which will be employed in Travis County jury charges in the near future.
• The inaugural Equity Summit, attended by more than 350 participants, provided five hours of MCLE ethics credits and thoughtful presentations and topics for continuing conversations and calls to action.
I’m equally proud of the group of committed lawyers and law students who joined the Equity Committee, without whom none of this work would have happened. The leadership team of the Equity Committee, consisting of Judge George C. Thomas, Mindy Gulati, Craig Moore, Ayeola Williams, Drew Williams, Cathy Garza, and former Justice Craig T. Enoch, pushed us and supported us every step of the way.
If you attended the Equity Summit, thank you! If what you heard moved you or inspired you, then I urge you to consider taking that inspiration and turning it into action. What can you do?
• You can respond to former Councilwoman Ora Houston’s call to help our neighbors in East Austin understand and navigate the real estate landscape in these days of gentrification and skyrocketing property values.
• As some of our neighbors lose jobs or face other hardships, you can put your education and power into the efforts of Volunteer Legal Services and literally change the course of someone’s life.
• You can take, or re-take, the Austin Bar’s 21-Day Racial Equity Habit Building Challenge, found on the Equity page at austinbar.org.
• You can read, watch, and learn from the many book, movie, and podcast recommendations also located on the same Equity webpage.
• You can join the Austin Bar’s Equity Committee and help guide its work.
• You can go out into the world, get proximate to the problem, and fight for ways to make things better.
We asked for and received suggestions and topics for the Equity Committee to highlight, explore, and explain in the future. Here are only a few of the excellent suggestions we’ve received, which I believe will be included in future Equity Summits or CLEs:
• A case study of an effective campaign to achieve meaningful positive change (e.g., marriage equality).
• Small-group conversations to honestly and openly explore the topics presented.
• More pro-bono opportunities.
• How mental health differences affect equity.
• A focus on inequalities in law schools and law firms.
• How some meritocracies and legal structures act to hide or enforce bias and inequality.
• Focus on other specific areas of inequality: gender bias, how different racial groups experience inequality, disability bias.
• How to identify bias in one’s self and how to correct it.
• A focus on the courtroom and bias in judges, juries, and attorneys.
The Equity Committee and all of its work have focused on working to achieve tangible goals and progress. We need all of us to engage in these efforts. Facing inequality, bias, prejudice, unconscious bias, privilege, and power dynamics head-on is scary. You may fear losing some of your own privilege and power. You may fear exposing your own biases and damaging your reputation. When I feel the urge to hold back out of fear, I challenge myself to remember what wise people have said about failure:
“Nothing worth having comes easy.” —Theodore Roosevelt
“When we show up, act boldly, and practice the best ways to be wrong, we fail forward. No matter where we end up, we’ve grown from where we began.” —Stacey Abrams
Ultimately, neighbors recognize the humanity in each other; they push each other to be better while offering each other grace for their missteps and failures. Neighbors do what is right for each other.
So, won’t you be my neighbor? AL
Judge Maya Guerra Gamble has presided over the 459 th District Court since January 2019 and was elected to the Austin Bar board of directors in 2020. She is the chair of the Austin Bar’s Equity Committee. Judge Guerra Gamble is an Austin native who has spent her career in public service and hopes to continue to do so for many years to come.
