How Diversity Makes Good Business Sense

Adiverse workplace is an asset that provides short- and long-term dividends for at least two reasons; client development and recruitment, and retention of skilled staff.

First, regardless of whether the firm is focused on institutional or individual clients, clients are increasingly diverse. As such, a firm that has a strong diversity policy is better positioned to market itself to retain or expand its clientele.

Second, a firm with a robust diversity policy is more attractive to talent.

Diversity Is A Pillar Of Business Development

Both Merriam-Webster and Oxford Dictionary define “diversity” as including people that are “different,” or more specifically, different “from each other.” Diversity in the workplace includes equality and inclusion of staff from different backgrounds, including different races, gender, religion, and sexual orientation.

However, diversity done well goes beyond simply including persons of different backgrounds to appreciating the strengths and the value these distinguishing features add to the firm.

Hiring staff with diverse backgrounds puts firms in a position to market to and connect with diverse clients. A diverse background ensures your teams are better able to recognize the nuances of how diverse markets conduct business, and what that means in terms of litigation risks, availability of witness and documentary evidence, and practical wrinkles that may be a barrier to dispute resolution.

For example, as a trilingual commercial litigator, one of my distinguishing features that I have focused my marketing on is my fluency in Cantonese and Mandarin, both orally and written. In many ways, I have focused my marketing on how I am different, and how these differences are assets. Some examples of this include applying those skills to develop oversea connections, understanding records in those languages, and attracting clients that prefer a litigator that speaks their language.

As such, diversity done well is recognizing how each person’s different background brings something more to the table, whether that be a different perspective or subject matter expertise in a particular market.

A diverse firm reflects that the clients we serve are not homogenous. A focus on diversity is in many ways a focus on expanding and deepening a firm’s toolbox in connecting with and providing value to our clients.

Diversity Is Crucial In Hiring And Retaining Skilled Staff

A robust diversity policy is crucial to attract the talent necessary to broaden the firm’s toolbox. In that respect, it applies both ways — from the employer perspective, it increases the firm’s access to a larger pool of skilled staff. Just as how the clients we serve are not homogenous, neither are the persons we need to provide services to our clients. Absent a policy and culture that appreciates the importance of a diverse workplace, a firm risks falling behind and unable to attract talent.

Candidates are increasingly interested in how a firm is inclusive. For example, some questions I have commonly been asked by candidates include questions ranging from my comfort level being “out” to coworkers, to whether I felt that there were sufficient or equal career advancement opportunities despite my differences. These types of questions reflect that the extent to which a firm has a culture of diversity and inclusion is a factor considered by candidates.

Conclusion

A diverse workplace is an important asset that permeates both internally and externally, from firm culture and recruitment to client management and development. Beyond being the right thing to do, it is the economically smart thing to do.

Where’s the Remote Control?

The COVID-19 pandemic has ushered into the world a number of irreversible changes: the normalization of mask wearing, the formerly foreign concept of social distancing, the unprecedented use of the word “unprecedented” outside of legal circles, and the ability of individuals (who are able) to work remotely or from home.

REMOTE WORK PRE-PANDEMIC

Pre-pandemic, although remote work was possible, it appeared to be the exception to the general rule that a worker ought to be in the office and at their desk during regular business hours. Within the legal industry, this held true for not only lawyers, but paralegals and office staff as well, with the notion of being physically present in the office for work simply serving as an unquestioned expectation. This all changed with the advent of the pandemic in early 2020, which produced a radical shift away from this assumption and necessitated that firms establish technological infrastructure to allow individuals to work from home in order to ensure that office operations could continue and that the health and safety of workers could be protected.

REMOTE WORK POST- PANDEMIC AND FIRM ACCOMMODATIONS

Although many pandemic related restrictions have since attenuated, remote working or working from home has endured as a common practice for many lawyers, either in a full-time or part-time capacity. Different firms will have their own policies on working from home, but anecdotally, it appears that most firms have continued to recognize the value in permitting lawyers and other workers the flexibility to work remotely. In the result, it is now common for firms to offer creative accommodations that not only benefit individual workers but the business of the firm as well. Some examples of these accommodations include:

„ Office sharing arrangements in which two or more lawyers share a space and co-ordinate a schedule regarding who works remotely and who attends in-office on each day of the week, which allows flexibility in the form of a partial remote work week while ensuring that the use of physical office space is maximized

„ The creation of hoteling offices, which are neutral and flexible workstations equipped with the amenities of a regular office but capable of being used by anyone. These spaces can also function as a remote/office share worker’s dedicated space in the event that they are preparing for a hearing or trial.

„ The firm-wide adoption and use of technology, like firm laptops and videoconferencing software to further reduce barriers to working from home and encouraging greater networking and collaboration.

„ Incentivizing workers to attend inoffice by providing perks such as parking or transit reimbursements, hosting catered lunch-and-learns/ seminars, or promoting participation in team building or practice group activities.

„ Offsetting concerns regarding a deterioration in workplace culture and morale by requiring workers to attend in-office for a minimum number of days per week.

Remote Work Is Here To Stay

All technological advances bring with them both benefits and drawbacks, and the ability to work remotely is no different. Within the legal industry, there are proponents of remote work who champion it as the long overdue solution to achieving greater work/ life balance by allowing for the substitution of commutes and water cooler talk for more time spent with family or friends; however, there are also others who correlate the rise in remote working with a decline in workplace productivity and culture.

Regardless of where you find yourself in this ongoing debate, it is clear that the genie is out of the bottle and some form of remote working is here to stay. Therefore, the challenge for firms and employers is attempting to strike an appropriate balance between accommodating its lawyers and workers while, at the same time, ensuring that meaningful connection and firm culture are preserved.

CYNTHIA LAM