March 16, 2022 – State Bar of Wisconsin President Cheryl Daniels said the Feb. 25 approval of the Racial Justice Task Force Report by the State Bar’s Board of Governors was a big step for the legal profession.
“To have done it unanimously is to say ‘We know that diversity, equity, inclusion, and access within our profession will mean that we will be a more relevant organization as well as a more relevant profession,’ which we need to be.”
Daniels said that the increasingly diverse nature of lawyers’ clientele is one reason for moving forward on the report’s 31 recommendations, 12 of which have already been implemented.
“Probably the most difficult thing to wrap our arms around is to think about what we do as a profession to make things as inclusive and understanding as possible, not only for ourselves but also because we are representing a more diverse clientele.”
One of the recommendations yet to be implemented is the approval of CLE credit for diversity, equity, inclusion, and access (DEIA) programs. At its Feb. 25 meeting, the Board of Governors approved a petition to the Wisconsin Supreme Court seeking authorization for such credit.
In anticipation of the petition being adopted, Daniels has appointed a task force to study whether DEIA CLE credit should be mandatory.
Daniels singed out another recommendation as vital for the future of the legal profession in Wisconsin – bolstering the State Bar’s collaboration with law schools to attract a more diverse student body.
“That’s going to be a huge issue going forward,” Daniels said, “because we need to have more diversity in our profession within the state and the State Bar can only do so much.”
Daniels plans to combine the work of the committee tasked with updating the State Bar’s diversity and inclusion action plan with the Racial Justice Task Force recommendations, to set DEIA priorities for the next two years and beyond, “so that it never becomes stale and so that we never forget that this is all a part of what we must to do make our profession relevant in this century.”
