When Barbara J. Howard was preparing to graduate from law school in 1979, she interviewed with several law firms, including two she was particularly interested in joining. One firm extended an offer early in the week and gave her until Friday to respond. Howard informed the other firm that she had received an offer and asked whether it intended to make one as well.
The firm told Howard it first needed to speak with her husband. Shocked, she told the firm that he was traveling for work and unavailable. The firm never extended an offer.
“I guess they thought that because I was a woman I would not stay in the legal practice and that it wouldn’t be worth their while to hire me. Needless to say, I proved them very wrong,” Howard, the American Bar Association’s president-elect, told attendees of the ABA Equity Summit on Wednesday.
The story served as a reminder of how far the legal profession has come and how far it still has to go, Howard said, as lawyers, judges, academics and corporate counsel gathered for the two-day virtual conference focused on diversity, equity and inclusion in the profession.
Hosted by the ABA’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Center and DEI Advisory Council, the summit — titled “The Innovation Advantage: Leveraging Diversity, Equity & Inclusion”— advances the organization’s goal of promoting diversity and eliminating bias in the legal profession and justice system, leaders said.
The good news, Howard said, is that the type of bias she encountered during the hiring process has largely been defeated. But legal leaders acknowledge there is still significant work to be done.
“We have witnessed the move away from the use of the phrase ‘diversity, equity and inclusion’ or ‘DEI’ due in large part to the missives of our administration,” Howard said.
Still, she was encouraged by fellow panelists, pointing to Bryan Browning, assistant general counsel of Wilco Corporation, who spoke on Tuesday about his continued commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion in his company’s litigation and other legal matters.
Browning joined Kimberly Norwood, a professor at Washington University School of Law, in highlighting research by management consulting firm McKinsey & Company showing that diverse teams outperform their peers, while homogeneous teams are more susceptible to blind spots.
“It confirms what we’ve long known — that diversity of thought and experiences leads to better results for our firms, our clients, and for our communities,” Howard said.
She also reflected on the summit’s first panel, titled “The Promise of 1776.” She quoted California Supreme Court Associate Justice Goodwin Liu, who said lawyers have a responsibility to recreate the meaning of the Declaration of Independence for the current age, to educate fellow citizens about democracy and to defend the liberties it provides.
“There’s really no question that, as we look back on our 250 years of our country’s existence, we see all the biases that we have faced and all that we have overcome. … Yet, as we look forward, we recognize that in our fight for equity, for being recognized as having been created equal and for Lincoln’s aspirational goal we learned about yesterday that everyone should have a fair chance at the race in life, we still have a long way to go,” Howard said.