Page 11 - Feb2019_BarJournal

COLuMN BarJournal

JULY/AUGUST 2015

PUrSUIng InclUSIon

Rebecca Ruppert McMahon

rom our founding days as a unified public sector employers and 16 courts to share the D&I Committee, led by CMBA Director
bar in 2008, the CMBA has had a detailed demographic information would give and Committee member Rose Fini, has
clear commitment to improving some organizations real pause — even when begun discussions with the Greater Cleveland
both the state of diversity and the provided written confidentiality agreements. Partnership (GCP) to determine whether we
F spirit of inclusion within our Bar, our In the end, of the 424 organizations asked might partner on such an initiative in the future.
justice system and our community. Much of our to complete the survey, 86 organizations GCP already conducts an annual diversity
effort in this arena — effort led by our Diversity responded for an overall 20% response rate. assessment within our business community —
& Inclusion Committee, including our current Prognosticators had told us to anticipate no including some law firms — and is similarly
Vice President of Diversity & Inclusion, Greg more than an 8–10% response rate. looking for opportunities to expand their reach
Guice — has been devoted to providing high In mid-2016, the D&I Committee issued by collaborating with others. And like the from THE cHIEf ExEcUTIvE offIcEr
quality programming that we hope will educate, its final report entitled, “Where We Stand.” In CMBA, GCP seeks D&I data to help benchmark
inform and ultimately inspire. From CLEs like reviewing all the data, the results demonstrated industries’ own diversity and inclusion efforts.
the series of offerings Marlon Primes detailed in that the activity and focus devoted over the By this time next year, the CMBA hopes
his column this month, to our pipeline programs past several years to creating a more diverse to have a formalized an agreement with GCP
designed to motivate high school and college and inclusive legal community have worked. that will enable both organizations, through a
students to our Midwest Career Fair developed Some progress has been made for attorneys of single assessment tool that is modified to meet
to connect law students and recent law grads color and women, even if the progress has been our respective needs, to collect meaningful
with real jobs, the CMBA has been and continues slow. We can only imagine how much slower diversity and inclusion information from
to be “in it to win it” when it comes to promoting the pace of progress would be if there had been our legal employers. In the meantime,
the recruitment, retention and advancement of no spotlight on the issue of diversity and no we encourage Cleveland law firms and
people of all colors, genders, backgrounds and efforts to address it. The results made it clear organizations to consider participating in the
experiences. that growing our community into a thriving GCP Diversity Assessment this year. Employers
One of the D&I Committee’s most significant diverse legal community is not an illusory who participate in the GCP Assessment will:
accomplishments to date was the completion target, but rather, a very achievable one. • receive a report with the aggregate results
of our legal community’s inaugural Diversity In the 2 ½ years since the report was released, of all employers’ data, which includes
& Inclusion Benchmarking Survey. The survey the CMBA has used much of the information benchmark data;
initiative, launched in 2015 and completed in gleaned from the responses to continue creating • receive a confidential individual score card,
2016, was born out of the fundamental goal to relevant, impactful programs. To ensure that we along with suggested resources, useful for
collect real demographic data that would enable continue to meet the needs of our community your organization’s internal diversity and
our Bar to evaluate the then-current state of and to chart our collective progress, we intend inclusion strategic planning; and
diversification within our legal community to re-survey our legal community every 3-5 • have opportunities for recognition of their
based upon real numbers and feedback rather years. Because of financial constraints, our diversity and inclusion initiatives.
than guesswork. The Committee also wanted inaugural survey initiative was developed using Even if you have not previously responded to
to conduct a broad look across the entire legal existing resources in-house at the CMBA, which the GCP Assessment, you are invited to do so any
profession to assess whether attorneys of color resulted in an intensively manual process. As we time before March 15, 2019. Details are available
and women were genuinely making progress in contemplate our next survey effort, we hope to at: http://gcpartnership.com/sitecore/content/
our community and not just, as many surveys capitalize upon advances in technology that GCP/Home/Initiatives/EconomicInclusion/
do, evaluating advancement at large firms as the will not only improve participating employers’ WorkforceDiversityEquityInclusion.
sole measure of advancement in our profession. experiences, but also our internal analysis and
When we launched the diversity survey — reporting of the results.
which included questions that made some To that end, and consistent with the CMBA’s Rebecca Ruppert McMahon is the CEO of the
people uncomfortable — many answered, strategic plan which calls for us to continue CMBA. She has been a CMBA member since
but not everyone. We knew asking 318 law to expand our collaborations with other 1995. She can be reached at (216) 696-3525 or
firms, 67 corporate legal departments, 23 community partners, a working group within rmcmahon@clemetrobar.org.
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