NACDL

Stop Talking and Start Doing: Increasing Diversity In the Legal Profession 

The greatest challenge to increasing diversity in the legal profession and on the bench is taking action. Law schools, bar associations, law firms, and other organizations have diversity panels, diversity luncheons, diversity committees, and diversity reports — but an appalling lack of actual diversity. Some might say that forming groups and compiling reports is taking action, but it is not. As Carter G. Woodson once wrote, “The mere imparting of information is not education.” Education is putting information into action in a way that shapes an individual, group, or process. It is not enough to say there is a lack of diversity, to address how it arises, and to report statistics — this information must be put into action if the face of diversity in the legal profession is going to change.

To have diversity in the profession, change needs to take place at the most basic level — elementary school. The Nation’s Repo