Requirements of the Law Society of Upper Canada
Description
eemerge will provide useful information on the new requirements documented in the “Working Together for Change: Strategies to Address Issues of Systemic Racism in the Legal Professions”, Final Report to Convocation on December 2, 2016.
In particular, eemerge will address requirements outlined in Recommendation 3 – “The Adoption of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Principles and Practices”. The requirements are documented as follows:
The Law Society will:
3.1 require every licensee to adopt and to abide by a statement of principles acknowledging their obligation to promote equality, diversity and inclusion generally, and in their behaviour towards colleagues, employees, clients and the public;
3.2 require a licensee representative of each legal workplace of at least 10 licensees in Ontario to develop, implement and maintain a human rights/diversity policy for their legal workplace addressing at the very least fair recruitment, retention and advancement, which will be available to members of the professions and the public upon request;
3.3 require a licensee representative of each legal workplace of at least 10 licensees in Ontario to complete, every two years, an equality, diversity and inclusion self-assessment for their legal workplace, to be provided to the Law Society; and
3.4 encourage legal workplaces to conduct inclusion surveys by providing them with sample templates.”
Our presenter, Andrea McClean, will specifically address how best to meet the above requirements, highlight available resources, and discuss the timing of each requirement.
Furthermore, Andrea will discuss how some firms have chosen to address the requirements and how they are pursuing more diverse and inclusive environments at their firms. Examples of best practices and approaches will be shared.
Speaker(s)