The Center for Legal Inclusiveness (CLI) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit formed in October 2007 to transform the legal profession in terms of diversity.  Originally, CLI was called the Colorado Campaign for Inclusive Excellence (CCIE).  

CLI's mission is a nonprofit dedicated to advancing diversity in the legal profession by actively educating and supporting private and public sector legal organizations in their own individual campaigns to create cultures of inclusion.

Inclusiveness is a new paradigm for the legal profession.  It moves beyond numbers (compositional diversity), and involves embedding practices and philosophies that encourage diversity in every aspect of an organization.  Numbers are a critical component of any initiative but as long as diversity in the legal profession is viewed, as it largely has been, as an outcome -- a number, a strategy or a phase -- progress will be elusive.  Real diversity in the legal profession will never be achieved when the focus is solely on numbers.  Strategies that fail to address underlying systemic causes and work to achieve sustainability are little more than transient attempts at change. 

Inclusiveness is the means through which diversity is organically accomplished in legal organizations.  At a fundamental level, inclusiveness involves recognizing and valuing the perspectives, backgrounds, life experiences, and world-views of every person without regard for race, gender, ethnicity, nationality, disability, sexual orientation, or gender expression.  Through this process, every person develops an equal voice and equal role in providing high quality legal services to clients and the community by drawing upon their experiences and talents as well as the experiences and talents of those with different backgrounds. 

This effort is intended to be a long-term, sustained change initiative, not the usual well intentioned, but historically unsustainable, diversity program.  The "campaign approach" also calls for action rather than endless discussion, providing great momentum for the initiative so far. 

Inclusiveness efforts fundamentally value diversity whereas diversity efforts fundamentally value numbers.  Past diversity efforts have largely focused upon compositional diversity without reference to the reasons why recruitment and retention efforts struggle.  Inclusive legal organizations have diverse individuals involved at all levels; the organization values the perspectives and contributions of all people and strives to incorporate the needs and viewpoints of diverse communities into the culture of the organization. 

Diversity refers to "the numbers" and to initiatives that are intended to increase the numbers.  But as long as the underlying culture of an organization is not inclusive, diversity efforts will fail to achieve any measure of success.  Inclusiveness involves the transformation of organizational cultures and environments.

Inclusiveness and the creation of an inclusive culture require the participation of everyone in the organization.  Just as historically underrepresented groups in the legal profession must be included, majority attorneys and staff must also participate in the removal of barriers created by the dominant culture.

Inclusiveness is not a substitute for diversity efforts; rather, they go hand-in-hand.  But for far too long, the legal profession has focused solely on getting diverse attorneys in the door without any regard for the fact that the door had become a revolving door.

Diversity improves the product for clients, enriches the work environment, and enhances the overall community-facing image of the legal profession.  Unfortunately, the legal profession continues to face difficulties attracting diverse candidates and retaining diverse attorneys.  The legal profession is one of the least diverse of all professions.  Nationally, minorities make up 11 percent of all lawyers (even though they comprise over 33 percent of the general population).  Colorado lags behind the national average with only 6.9 percent attorneys of color represented (based on 2000 Census figures). 

Other professions have done a much better job of attracting diverse people - minorities account for 28 percent of all doctors, 22 percent of accountants, and 18 percent of civil engineers, for example.  CLI's inclusiveness model will create the organic change necessary to increase diversity and inclusiveness in the legal profession and reverse the trend that puts lawyers at the bottom of the list of all professions in terms of diverse members.

While the supply of diverse attorneys is low, demand for them has never been higher.  That demand is being driven by the efforts of corporate legal counsel across the country to put increasing pressure on law firms to hire, retain, and assign more diverse attorneys to their legal casework.  Over one hundred corporate legal departments in Fortune 500 companies signed the 2004 Call to Action, which called on law firms to increase diversity or risk losing the signatories as clients.  Now, those corporations have formed a nonprofit – the Leadership Council for Legal Diversity – and greater diversity remains a high priority.

The CLI Board of Directors is a diverse group that is largely comprised of senior members of Colorado's legal community, including the law deans of Colorado's law schools, managing partners of law firms, general counsel of some of Colorado's largest corporations, federal judges, senior government attorneys, and representatives from diversity-related organizations and the specialty bar groups.

CLI has developed the only resource specifically adapted to the legal profession for creating inclusive workplaces that better retain diverse attorneys. CLI acts as a clearinghouse for information on diversity best practices and support legal offices in their efforts to adopt the principles of inclusiveness. 

In 2006, a group of lawyers in the Denver legal community came together under the leadership of the two Colorado law deans to form the Deans’ Diversity Council (DDC).  The DDC was convened by Beto Juárez, Dean of the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, and David Getches, Dean of the University of Colorado Law School, in November 2006 to address the lack of diversity in the profession.  Members of the DDC include top leaders from every sector of the legal community - law schools, law firms, judiciary, government, public interest, and bar associations.  The Deans' Diversity Council continues to act as an advisory group to CLI and many of the original founders are on CLI’s Board of Directors.   The DDC meets biannually at the two law schools.

The DDC formed three Working Groups (see below) to examine the barriers to inclusiveness and to develop strategies for overcoming those obstacles.  CLI also created a step-by-step manual designed to guide legal organizations through the process of creating an inclusive culture.  This manual - Beyond Diversity: Inclusiveness in the Legal Workplace - was adapted from The Denver Foundation's inclusiveness workbook and program - Inclusiveness at Work. 

CLI created a real-world learning laboratory to test the principles of the inclusiveness manual by recruiting legal organizations to implement the steps of the manual beginning in 2008. The group is now called the Inclusiveness Network and includes 29 legal organizations: 14 law firms, 4 corporate legal departments, 9 government legal offices, and Colorado’s 2 law schools. They are formally implementing the Inclusiveness Manual, meeting quarterly and working collaboratively to support each other’s efforts. The first cohort of the Inclusiveness Network was formed in 2008 and two additional cohorts were created in 2011. 

This group meets quarterly to share their experiences, receive substantive educational experiences from local and national experts, and create models for other legal organizations to follow.  Read about the experiences of these organizations and their case studies at www.legalinclusiveness.org (subscription required for complete case studies).  Contact Executive Director Kathleen Nalty at knalty@legalinclusiveness.org for more information about the Inclusiveness Network.

The Pipeline Working Group is analyzing the reasons underlying the declining rate of law school applications among minority students and organizing the legal community to engage in activities that will encourage young diverse students to choose law as a career.

The Recruiting Working Group is redefining traditional hiring criteria (grades and law school) to increase the focus on factors that lead to success for attorneys.  It also hosts an annual "Boot Camp" for diverse 1L students from DU and CU law schools who are participating in the Pledge to Diversity Legal Group's Summer 1L Clerkship Program. 

The Retention Working Group is overseeing an effort by 14 GCs and more than 40 managing partners to create a new model for leadership in diversity and inclusiveness.  The group also hosts workshops for diverse lawyers of CLI-participating law firms with prominent corporate general counsel.

Contact CLI Executive Director Kathleen Nalty at knalty@legalinclusiveness.org for more information.  Volunteers are needed on all fronts.

There are 29 legal organizations now implementing CLI’s inclusiveness program through CLI’s  Inclusiveness Network. They meet quarterly and work collaboratively to support each other’s efforts. The Inclusiveness Network includes 14 law firms, 4 corporate legal departments, 9 government legal offices, and Colorado’s 2 law schools. The first cohort of the Inclusiveness Network was formed in 2008 (IN08) and two additional cohorts were created in 2011 - the IN11 cohort and the USAO/DA cohort.

View the list of participating members. Kathleen Nalty, CLI Executive Director, and Dr. Arin Reeves, Nextions, a national leadership and inclusiveness expert from Chicago, oversee the work of the Inclusiveness Network. If your organization wishes to participate, contact CLI Executive Director Kathleen Nalty.

Annual Conference:  CLI hosts its annual conference, the Legal Inclusiveness & Diversity Summit, in the spring of each year in Denver. The Summit features national inclusiveness and diversity experts. Past speakers have included national experts such as: Dr. Arin Reeves, Nextions; Brande Stellings, Catalyst; Dr. Anika K. Warren, Catalyst; Werten Ballamy, Stakeholders; Cynthia Calvert, CT Calvert & Associates, and Dr. Roland Smith, Center for Creative Leadership. For more information about the upcoming Summit or previous conferences, click here.

GC/MP Leadership Model:  Fourteen Colorado GCs and over 40 law firm managing partners are collaborating on a new model for leadership in diversity and inclusiveness.  They have created action items and are in the process of implementing them.  Their case studies will be featured at www.legalinclusiveness.org.

Step-by-step manual on how to create inclusive culture:  CLI has also published its innovative inclusiveness manual -  Beyond Diversity:  Inclusiveness in the Legal Workplace – which is available at www.legalinclusiveness.org.  The manual is a step-by-step guide to transforming cultures in legal organizations. It is the only "how-to" inclusiveness manual in the legal profession.  

CLE Programs:  CLI sponsors a summer diversity and inclusiveness CLE workshop series featuring several local and national experts on a wide variety of topics.  

Diversity Survey:  CLI partnered with other diversity groups in the Denver legal community to draft and distribute a survey on attitudes and perceptions about legal diversity.  The survey report is available on "Diversity Survey" page of CLI's website.

Demographics:  Racial and ethnic minorities comprise approximately 33 percent of the U.S. population but only 11 percent of all lawyers.  That figure is lower in Colorado where minorities account for only 6.9 percent of all attorneys and judges, according to 2000 U.S. Census figures. 

Attrition Rates in Private Practice:  Minority attorneys, and particularly, female attorneys of color, have higher attrition rates than non-diverse attorneys in private practice.  The ABA's "Visible Invisibility" report has determined that by the 8^th year, the attrition rate among minority female associates tops 86% which explains why only 1.88 percent of partners in larger law firms (1.53 percent in Denver) are minority women.

Pipeline to Law School:  Since 1993, law school class sizes have increased, as have the number of law schools. Yet, representation of Mexican-American and African-American students in law school has decreased during this period.  According to Colombia Law School and the Society of American Law Teachers, a higher percentage of applicants in those groups are "shut out" and denied acceptance by all the schools to which they apply. Moreover, the number of Mexican-American and African-American students graduating from law school has also not markedly increased during this time frame. In 1993, there were 4,142 combined graduates from these groups, and in 2008, there were only 4,060 graduates.

1.  Organizational Effectiveness:  Empirical research has shown that diversity in the workplace leads to increased creativity and innovation.  Organizations that are more creative and innovative are better able to serve their clients.  Inclusive environments and cultures help retain diverse people which, in turn, helps with recruiting more diverse people.

2.  Economics:  Diversity enhances an organization's competitiveness - for both talent and clients.  This is especially true in the private sector with corporate legal counsel's push for more diversity among law firms with The Call to Action initiative.  Law students across the country are also advocating for greater diversity (see www.buildingabetterlegalprofession.org).

3.  Liability:  Diverse and inclusive organizations limit their exposure to lawsuits based on discrimination.

4.  Moral/Ethical/Equity:  The legal profession is the vanguard in our society defending justice and pursuing liberty for all citizens. Thus, it should lead the way toward full inclusion.  As Justice O'Connor stated in Grutter v. Bollinger, "Effective participation by members of all racial and ethnic groups in the civic life of our Nation is essential if the dream of one Nation, indivisible, is to be realized."