A Legal Minority Report

// Today’s focus is minorities within the legal industry. I am talking about the things that don’t spring to mind for the general public when thinking of the legal profession. Each one of the following three “minorities” is a viable and exciting career path for anyone passionate about the law.

The first is the one most directly related to minorities and it concerns diversity, equity, and inclusion. More specifically, it is about measuring the aforementioned factors. In a time when the push for equality is strong and calls for equity are among the loudest voices, it is important for companies and legal firms to make sure they are up to speed — not just in terms of compliance but also in regard to the bigger picture. They need to be both socially aware and socially responsible.

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Furthermore, the ties between equity and the bottom line are becoming increasingly closer for a plethora of reasons. According to David Cunningham and Ashley Clingo of Diversity Metrics 3.0, the measures are more complicated and sensitive than ever before. Diversity Metrics 3.0 (David’s startup) currently has over 120 different measures and, according to Ashley, that number will sit between 200 and 300 in the near future. Measures of diversity need to consider the number of employees, the complexity and amount of the work being done, and all the different groups of previously disadvantaged people relative to the region of operations.

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Within diversity metrics lies a number of different legal issues related to privacy, compliance, legislation, and implementation. You can find my conversation with David and Ashley here.

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Our next minority is probably the largest of the three — mediation. A mediator is someone who resolves disputes between parties by listening to both sides with the aim of finding a middle ground. It is a complicated matter that involves removing biases, finding a passion for both cases, and helping them to understand one another. I’ve never dabbled in mediation myself, but, in the following interview, I spoke to fellow TEDx-er, Winter Wheeler.

Winter actually developed a framework for mediation which she has termed the Four Cornerstones: emotional intelligence, cultural knowledge, cultural immersion, and genuine empathy. Emotional intelligence is essential to understanding emotions and the role they play in perception and decision-making. It enables you to recognize and regulate your own emotions as well as to identify and account for the emotions of others. You may already see how this can spill over into your personal life — where mediation is often required — and Winter advocates for mediation as a lifestyle, something with which any parent will agree.

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Our last path is legal design, though it doesn’t involve art or anything of the sort; it is more of a mindset and an approach. In the words of Marty Finestone, it aims to “simplify legal docs and legal ops.” The essence of legal design is creativity, simplicity, and utility. Legal design is about making things easier and more efficient for the people who use them and/or are impacted by them.

This means it takes a firm stance against legalese, trying to make contracts engaging and readable — something that they rarely are. The creativity of legal design allows for infographics and “cheat sheets” of terms and terminology, using language with which the “audience” is familiar. It is a revolutionary approach to the law.

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Olga V. Mack is the CEO of Parley Pro, a next-generation contract management company that has pioneered online negotiation technology. Olga embraces legal innovation and had dedicated her career to improving and shaping the future of law. She is convinced that the legal profession will emerge even stronger, more resilient, and more inclusive than before by embracing technology. Olga is also an award-winning general counsel, operations professional, startup advisor, public speaker, adjunct professor, and entrepreneur. She founded the Women Serve on Boards movement that advocates for women to participate on corporate boards of Fortune 500 companies. She authored Get on Board: Earning Your Ticket to a Corporate Board Seat and Fundamentals of Smart Contract Security. You can follow Olga on Twitter @olgavmack.

Topics

In-House Counsel, Olga V. Mack