Canadian Lawyer

www.canadianlawyermag.com 5 Leonard says another challenge is tracking the diversity of his workforce, with privacy concerns about self-identification. Sacha de Klerk, the head of diversity & inclusion, Canada at Norton Rose, says her firm has made strides in tracking diversity. Norton Rose says it was the first law firm in Canada to begin collecting and publishing data on employee race and ethnicity in 2016. In 2020, the firm expanded its data collection to integrate demographic data into its human resources systems, which will help the firm track its progress against the BNI targets. Currently, Norton Rose says 3 per cent of its people in the firm self-identify as Black, based on a survey with a 63 per cent response rate. "Change doesn't happen without urgency and public commitments. [Pledges like BNI] create that platform. They create that urgency across all levels in a firm," says de Klerk. Trish Callon, senior vice-president and general counsel at Sun Life Canada, says commitments like BNI, which Sun Life also signed, are important when evaluating law firms. However, she says Sun Life is also paying attention to the firms' teams who they put forward to do the work. "It's an important public statement to have signed the commitment, but then the "It's an important public statement to have signed the commitment, but then the real work comes after that. Which is, what are you doing to meet that commitment?" Trish Callon, Sun Life Canada BLACKNORTH LAW FIRM PLEDGE The law firm pledge, signed by most of the major law firms in Canada in 2020, included the following commitments: Racism education, including unconscious bias education Sharing the best — and unsuccessful — practices Diversity leadership council to work with law firm senior leadership 5 per cent of student workforce from the Black community by 2025 3 per cent of firm-supported corporate donations and sponsorships to promote the Black community by 2025 3.5 per cent of Canadian senior leadership roles held by Black or visible minority leaders by 2025, and 3.5 per cent held by Black leaders by 2030 real work comes after that. Which is, what are you doing to meet that commitment?" Samanthea Samuels, equity, diversity and inclusion manager at Borden Ladner Gervais LLP (BLG), says her firm is working on several fronts to ensure they live up the BNI pledge and says BLG's language has evolved as well. "Rather than just talking about unconscious bias or discrimination, we've named anti-Black, as well as anti-Asian and other forms of racism directly," says Samuels. Like many firms, BLG is still working out how to track their firm's diversity — currently, they only track gender — but Samuels says the BNI has helped move things forward. "Commitments like these … create a sense of accountability. [They] really allow for firms and organizations to actively continue to build a culture of inclusion," says Samuels.

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