Keeping Tabs December 2018

What led to you writing the article?
Atrisha Lewis (AL): I had met with a
few racialized students before the OCI
process and I was often asked how they
could figure out if a firm would be an
inclusive place for them to work. I suggested
some questions they could ask,
but I realized that students would not
necessarily feel empowered to ask the
important questions.
I then reached out to Suhuyini and
Mariam to see if they would collaborate
on an article with me. I hoped that
I had met with a few
racialized students before
the OCI process and I was
often asked how they
could figure out if a firm
would be an inclusive
place for them to work.
if we collectively published an article,
students may feel empowered to actually
ask their questions. Together, we
brainstormed and compiled questions
that we thought would help students
meaningfully distinguish between firms.
As we were developing these questions,
we realized that an important
secondary audience was the lawyers
and recruiting teams at the firms participating
in OCIs. They would know
that these were questions that they
would have to prepare for and if they
did not have good answers, they would
hopefully start reflecting on that.
Mariam Moktar (MM): The timing
was also right. This was about a year
after the release of Hadiya Roderique’s
essay “Black on Bay Street”, which garnered
a lot of attention on Bay Street
and elsewhere.
Feedback from the article?
MM: After the article was published,
my firm’s (Lenczner Slaght) diversity
committee met and prepared answers
to those questions, in advance of student
interviews. Our article was widely
shared on social media during OCIs
and in-firm interviews. Students asked
questions about my firm’s diversity and
inclusion initiatives during in-firms. A
few even expressed their gratitude,
noting that the article empowered
them to ask those questions.
AL: A similar process happened at
McCarthy Tétrault LLP. During recruitment,
the questions were sent out and
lawyers thought of answers. This was
the secondary impact I had hoped for.
Also, anecdotally, I was told that students
did ask those questions.
Suhuyini Abudulai (SA): Same here.
Our student committee reviewed the
questions and thought of answers.
What is important about the article is
the spotlight placed on the firms. The
questions are not “fluffy” questions
and require firms to look internally at
what they are actually doing to have a
diverse and inclusive workplace.
With these approaches to diversity
and inclusion, did you notice anything
different about this year’s OCIs?
MM: This year my firm adopted nameblind
hiring and this had, I believe, a
meaningful impact. During in-firm interviews,
I saw a diverse crop of candidates.
We also developed standardized
interview questions and scrapped our
cocktail reception. Instead, we had an
R&R lounge, a space in our building lobby
for students to “relax and recharge”
in between interviews.
AL: My firm sent out a tweet about how diverse
our class was after recruitment. That is a tweet
you would never have seen a year ago. People are
looking for this and expecting this. This is not a
“nice to have”; it is a “need to have”. It reflects an
attitudinal shift.
SA: I didn’t notice anything different from the Cassels
Brock perspective as the student class over the
last few years has been diverse and reflective of the
community. It shows continuous progress.
What should be the next step for the discourse
on diversity and inclusion?
AL: We wrote the article because we wanted to
see diversity reflected at all levels and it starts with
recruitment. But it doesn’t end there. That’s why
we asked questions about retention. Firms need to
look at their processes and see if there is anything
they can do better to retain diverse lawyers.
MM: That’s right. Many of the current firm initiatives
address the diversity piece. I think it will
be more challenging to address inclusion. Once
a diverse candidate is hired, what are firms then
doing to ensure that candidate feels included
and stays?
SA: That is an important piece – inclusion is harder.
Hiring diverse candidates is the easier part. Inclusion
requires levelling the playing field so all candidates
have access to the same opportunities such
as billable matters, exposure to challenging files to
develop and strengthen their skills, and business
development opportunities. This impacts retention
and promotion.
Suhuyini Abudulai is a partner at Cassels Brock
& Blackwell LLP. Mariam Moktar is an associate
at Lenczner Slaght Royce Smith Griffin LLP. Atrisha
Lewis is an associate at McCarthy Tétrault
LLP. Their article that started this discussion can
be found here. You can find them on Twitter at
@sabudulai, @MariamMoktar and @atrishalewis.
Readers, we’d like to hear about your experiences
and insights on diversity and inclusion during recruitment
or in terms of retention. Share them on
Twitter with the hashtag #diversityquestions and
be sure to tag @Advocates_Soc.
Suhuyini Abudulai, Cassels Brock
Mariam Moktar, Lenczner Slaght
Atrisha Lewis, McCarthy Tétrault
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