Law Firms Band Together to Fight Racism
July 01, 2020
More than 150 law firms around the country have formed a coalition to fight systemic racism by leveraging the resources of the private bar and partnering with legal services organizations. The Law Firm Antiracism Alliance (LFAA), launched last week, will hold a virtual summit of key stakeholders on July 29 and 30 to develop a more formal organizational structure and identify the organization’s priorities.
The LFAA is the product of a year-long exchange between the Association of Pro Bono Counsel and the Shriver Center on Poverty Law’s Racial Justice Institute, and, more recently, with managing partners and chairs of law firms looking to address social justice issues. According to its charter, the LFAA will “facilitate the national collaboration of member firms to create large-scale coordinated pro bono projects that are both immediate and long-term in scope.”
The LFAA is neither a legal services organization nor a pro bono program, but rather an alliance of law firms seeking to leverage their resources nationally to promote racial equality in the law, says Brenna K. DeVaney, director of pro bono programs at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP in Chicago, who has been involved in the coordination of LFAA activities.
“The idea behind this alliance is that we would be trying to understand where racism is codified or practiced in our legal institutions and make change around that using all the tools lawyers have at their disposal. And that by pulling together a group of law firms, both large and small, we could have coverage around the country, and in fact beyond, to come at those problems in a long-term, committed way,” she says.
Among the organization’s action items are the development of a “Systemic Racism Legal Inventory,” a catalogue of laws, rules, and policies that result in negative outcomes for people of color, and the implementation of legislative and regulatory advocacy strategies to change them.
The LFAA also aims to amplify the work done by legal services organizations and facilitate the coordination of efforts across jurisdictional lines. The organization is intended to be accessible to both large and small firms regardless of practice area. The commitments and contributions of member firms are also flexible to ensure that any interested firms can participate.
DeVaney says the organization will seek to enhance and support the work already under way in the pro bono community. “This is an effort to leverage our resources and to bring more resources in a laser-focused way around issues of racism to support the work that civil rights organizations and legal services organizations already do.”
For more information about the LFAA or about its July summit, contact DeVaney at [email protected].
