The Role of the Lawyer in Advancing Racial Equity

The urgency for racial equity is a clarion call for the legal profession. As legal practitioners consider how best to support this global movement, the FBA Diversity and Inclusion (D & I) Committee collaborated with the UN Global Compact to develop a comprehensive Certified Program for law students studying throughout the U.S. to promote understanding and action in addressing systemic racism. The program contextualized these efforts within the UN Sustainable Development Goals (‘SDGs’) framework. 

Offered free of charge over a period of three sessions, the program exemplified diversity in terms of race, age, gender, nationality, background, and focus areas. Co-badged along with the UN Global Compact Network USA and the UN Global Compact Network UK, it highlighted practical avenues for lawyers to advance the cause of racial equity, either in public-sector work within government or non-governmental civil society organizations or in corporate work, either through a law firm or general counsel’s office. The program looked abroad, as well, to recent and pending human rights legislation as a means to inform and amplify the racial equity movement.

Adopted in 2015 by every nation on the planet, the SDGs enshrine the enforcement of human rights and the promotion of equality and rule of law, articulating an ambitious fifteen-year achievement timeframe. While it is national governments that have committed to these objectives, private sector action is also envisioned. Drawing from this universally accepted agenda offers a comprehensive and quantifiable framework for tackling the issues that continue to disproportionately impact minority and impoverished communities throughout the world. For lawyers to advance the cause of racial equity, they need to understand how these objectives and their underpinning principles can guide progress for governments, businesses, finance and civil society.