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within our community. Terrence, would you talk about the structure of the Center, who's involved, and the Center’s hopes for the future.
REED: The Center for Excellence in Decisionmaking is truly a grass roots organization that started in 2018. It stemmed from the MBA Bench Bar conference in St. Louis. So, we are still a fairly new 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Since we do not have an executive director, all our initiatives are accomplished through our board. We have 21 very esteemed board members. One of the reasons I'm so privileged to work with the Center is because of these very progressive forward-thinking leaders within our community.
We volunteer to put on workshops, training sessions, educational programs and other initiatives. We are able to accomplish what we do through very generous benefactors, law firms, companies like International Paper and FedEx, and personal donations and sponsorships. Our most recent sponsors are State Farm, Baker Donelson and Ogletree Deakins. We work in partnership with the Memphis Bar Association and other wonderful partners with whom we collaborate, in order to turn these initiatives into reality. Most of which are free because of our very generous donors.
We have had some exciting programs: Jeffrey Robinson, who is with the ACLU, presented in February
President Terrence Reed, FedEx Express Managing Director Vice President Bryce Ashby, Donati Law Firm Treasurer Dean Katherine Schaffzin, University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law Secretary Doris Randle Holt, Western District of Tennessee Federal Public Defender
• Judge Bernice Donald, U.S. Court of Appeals for the
Sixth Circuit
• Judge Thomas Parker, U.S. District Court for the
Western District of Tennessee
• Chancellor JoeDae Jenkins, Shelby County
Chancery Court • Judge Gina Higgins, Shelby County Circuit Court • Phyllis Aluko, Shelby Country Chief Public Defender • Matthew Barron, International Paper Associate
General Counsel
• Greg Duckett, Baptist Memorial Health Care Senior
Vice President/Chief Legal Officer • Professor Demetria Frank, University of Memphis
Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law/Director of
Diversity & Inclusion • Desi Franklin, First Horizon Senior Vice President
• Mark Glover, Baker Donelson Office Managing
Shareholder
• Marlinee Iverson, Shelby County Attorney • Ray Lepone, Shelby County Deputy District
Attorney General • Caren Nicol, Evans Petree, PC
• Earle Schwarz, Law Office of Earle J. Schwarz
• Jennifer Sink, City of Memphis Chief Legal Officer • Kenneth Walker, Shelby County Schools General
Counsel/Chief Legal Officer • Monica Wharton, Methodist LeBonheur Healthcare
Executive Vice President/Chief Administrative Officer
on racism in policing and in April with a three-hour dynamic program titled “Who We Are, a Chronicle of Racism in America.” We have some very dynamic programing planned for the upcoming months.
SCHWARZ: Let me turn to Dean Schaffzin, who also has been involved in the Center pretty much from the beginning. What attracted you to the project and what do you see as the potential synergy between the law school and the Center?
DEAN SCHAFFZIN: When I was first approached, it was maybe two months into my deanship, and I was still drinking from the fire hose. By July, we had our first big meeting in planning the next steps for the Center, and I was thrilled to be invited. What attracted me was really two things. One, the focus on diversity and inclusion, because I knew from the start of my deanship that was going to be a priority for me in leading the law school. So, the timing was perfect from my vantage point. I was also attracted by the uniqueness of the Center's approach by targeting implicit bias from the top down. It seems so much more effective than starting from the bottom up. And it seems so obvious when you look back on it, but it's not how a lot of diversity programs or implicit bias programs are structured. But, of course, start with the decision makers, and that will then be passed down through the ranks. So, I loved the innovative thought of starting with the decision makers. And yes, lawyers are decision makers, and it did seem obvious to be starting with the legal community.
The law school was happy to be a partner and offer space. The Center offers the law school complimentary programing to really enhance the diversity and inclusion programing that the law school is focused on. I see a synergy with what's happening that’s really helping the law school achieve its goals of increasing enrollment and graduation of diverse attorneys. But we can't do that alone. The legal community has to hire those attorneys and create opportunities for those attorneys. So, I thought that the Center for Excellence in Decision-making was an excellent partner for the law school, because together we are the legal community. We can help bring in and support successful law students and bring them to graduation. Then hopefully, the legal community will embrace them and provide opportunity. And the Center for Excellence in Decision-making helps prepare the legal community for that opportunity. I think it's a great partnership, and we are very happy to be a part of it.
Dean Schaffzin discusses her involvement and the importance of CEDM
CEDM Future
SCHWARZ: If you could wave a magic wand, what would you like the Center to be over the next five years.
DEAN SCHAFFZIN: I know exactly what I would want it to be. I would want it to be an academic center that was part of the law school community to foster research in the area, and receive national grants to fund research to support the data to drive policies in this area, and to develop a national curriculum. I see it as a center that could not only have this national curriculum, but could create fellowships whereby individuals receiving training from the Center could go out across the country and provide training to other legal communities beyond just Memphis. In five years, that would be an amazing accomplishment.
JUDGE PARKER: When I look back at our vision statement, one of the things that we wanted to do was to influence key community leaders, business leaders, as well
Dean Schaffzin waves her magic wand
as individuals. In five years, I would like to see us be able to influence people like the CEOs of major corporations perhaps, all the way across our business community and other key stakeholders, political leaders, you name it. I think that would dovetail nicely with Dean Schaffzin's thoughts as well.
JUDGE DONALD: I'm waving my magic wand, first of all, to concur and adopt the statements of Dean Schaffzin and Judge Parker. I would add a couple of things. I love the notion of the information and education. I would like to see the Center, in addition to those things, or a part of that mission as articulated by Schaffzin and Parker, be in a position to go to entities, institutions, companies, firms, and upon request, be able to help them perform diversity assessments, to look at the overall operation and help them develop a plan, a strategic plan to foster the need for diversity in every area of their institutions. I would like for the Center to be able to have facilitators who would lead upon and request difficult conversations in diverse environments. I believe that we still are not at a point where we can really talk to each other across some of these barriers about difficult conversations that can help us grow. So, if a company wanted to have a lunch and learn conversation, or just a conversation around certain events, I would like them to look to the Center to come and facilitate this conversation.
I would also like for us to be a resource to help firms and entities who are seeking to increase diversity, to help give them information and strategies for doing that. We have two programs, one about diversity in law firms and another about diversity in government entities. And there was an expressed need, a desire in both of those areas to do something to expand that diversity. Dean Schaffzin talks about diverse students graduating and having increased opportunities. I think that's a perfect goal for the Center to be a part of.
Finally, I would love to see us continue to provide the rich, thought-provoking programing that we have been able to do, along with developing a resource bank for cutting edge and expansive information in this area. I know there is a lot out there, and most of us when we start to look for this, it is like turning the water hose some, but if the Center could provide some basic materials and recommend a must-read list for your diversity and inclusion and bias diet, that would be great.
REED: If I could wave my magic wand in the next five years, I agree and I concur with everybody else's wish list. I do think that the Center has done a really good job with providing training and opening up the conversation within the legal community. We talked earlier about the groups within the legal community in which we targeted to try to improve the decision making, for example, within our criminal justice system. Within the next five years, I fully anticipate, and would like to see the Center transcend beyond the legal community, because there are issues to be addressed within the educational system, the media, and so forth. So, I hope that within five years we have not only tackled and made vast improvements within the legal community, but also within other fields. Within five years, I hope that the Center will have established itself as the premier training organization. We have provided what I thought was excellent training. We need to get our name out there, and spread the word that the Center for Excellence in Decision-making is where you need to go, and where organizations need to go if they want to provide training to leaders within their
Judge Parker shares his hopes for the CEDM in the next five years
Judge Donald waves her magic wand
HOW TO BECOME A BETTER LAWYER
SURVEY OPPORTUNITY
Life can sometimes throw curve balls and lawyers could find themselves sitting in the client’s chair. While it may be mildly interesting looking at their lawyer’s diplomas, what the lawyer-cumclient really wants is a resolution of their personal legal matter, yesterday if possible. Be on the lookout. The Publications Committee will be emailing a survey for any lawyers who have occupied the seat of the client in their personal lives. Please provide your feedback to this short survey, which will consist of less than 10 questions that will range from how the experience made you a better lawyer to what irritated you about your lawyer during the process. All responses will be confidential, and no names of lawyers or lawyer/clients will be used in analyzing the results. Your input, though, could go a long way to allowing us to reflect on what could make all of us ultimately better lawyers for our clients. Terrence shares 5-year-plan for CEDM
organization, to their workers and so forth. We have been able to provide a tool kit and tips for the organizations that we have targeted. So, I would like to be that shop for organizations within the legal community and out.
I would also like to be the repository for groundbreaking research. I know Judge Donald and Dean Schaffzin talked about that. That is certainly on our list. We are not there yet, but within five years hopefully the Center for Excellence in Decision-making will be where people will go when they want high level, intensive research in this area. One of the things that we have done in addition to the training on diversity, equity and inclusion, especially during this COVID period, we have provided educational programs, virtual programs through webinars, for certain issues that are plaguing our community. We had a program on voter suppression. We have had a program on domestic terrorism. We had a program on racisms and the U.S. economy, and we recently had a program on racism in policing and the history of that within the United States. Hopefully, in five years we are still providing that educational arm for the Center. And here's something that is novel. I'm hoping we can track and benchmark improvements for organizations that have used the Center to provide training, so over time we will be able to gather and analyze data to show how the Center has benefited these organizations or legal groups. So, that's my wish list.
