According to the American Bar Association, the legal profession has the least representation of racial and ethnic diversity than all professional careers. Diverse attorney attrition is another troublesome issue in the legal industry. To combat these trends in law, the Center for Legal Inclusiveness (CLI) was founded by a group of Denver-area lawyers and professors in 2007. Headquartered in Denver, Colorado, the CLI is taking a focused approach on working to improve the retention and advancement of diverse attorneys by helping legal organizations create more inclusive workplaces.

“Lawyers are the guardians of equity and justice in our society. For lawyers to be at the bottom of the list with respect to all other professions in terms of representation by racially and ethnically diverse numbers is embarrassing and honestly, quite shameful,” said Executive Director of the CLI Kathleen Nalty. “If everyone involved in the justice system isn’t diverse, and people coming to the courthouse obviously represent every aspect of society, then there’s a big disconnect there. I would hate for people to lose even more confidence in the legal profession because it doesn’t reflect society as a whole.” Read the full article (pages 22-23 of the PDF online)