NW Lawyer - March 2015

This is the second in a series of articles related to professionalism at the WSBA — see also “Sunset to Sunrise: A New Dawn in Professionalism” from the OCT 2014 NWLawyer.

by Sims Weymuller

Lawyers must see color; we must see culture. We must know both. Rep- resenting clients in a diverse world requires it. The practice of law is a privi- lege, a monopoly granted by the public in exchange for a sacred trust to permit access to justice for all. I would expect that most of us agree with this principle, and many work to embody it. But how hard do each of us work to ensure that we know and understand what justice means for our clients? To do so, requires that we know them. To know our clients requires that we know their culture.

Where We Are and Where We Are Going

Virtually every lawyer in Washington will have clients from different backgrounds. The Washington state population includes 29 percent racial minorities. 1 Meanwhile, according to the 2012 WSBA membership survey, racial minorities make up only 12 percent of WSBA membership. 2 This is a significant gap, and as we’ll discuss further, it likely impacts our ability to adequately represent our clients.

The WSBA Diversity and Inclusion Plan, adopted in 2013,
brought positive steps on the path to cultural competence,
There is merit in this premise. Though sparse data is
available from the legal field, data from the medical field
has shown that increasing diversity among practitioners
improves care to diverse populations. A recent report found
that “evidence demonstrates that greater diversity among
health professionals is associated with improved access to
care for racial and ethnic patients, greater patient choice
and satisfaction, and better patient-provider communica-
tion.” 4 Racial and ethnic minority providers have been
found to be more likely than non-minorities to serve minor-
ity populations, thereby improving access to healthcare. 5
There is little reason to think that our profession is any dif-
ferent. Ethnic and cultural diversity among members of the
Bar improves the likelihood that the Bar will serve minority
populations and fosters a broader understanding of the is-
sues facing these communities. We need to close that gap,
and the “Inside-Out” effort takes meaningful steps to do so.

The Dual Core Competencies of Culture and
Empathy

While improving diversity in the Bar is a long-term goal, no matter how diverse we are, we will each represent clients from different backgrounds. Regardless of your race, ethnicity, or culture, if you are a lawyer reading this, you are unlikely to intuitively know and understand the culture of all of your clients. But it is your job to learn. It is your job to achieve cultural competence, and it will make you a better lawyer. 6