Call it code switching. Call it playing the game. Call it the mask. But lawyers of color, women in law, lawyers from other countries, LGBTQ lawyers know the effects of constant assimilation into a profession that, according to 2017 Bureau of Labor Statistics figures, is 88.6 percent white.
It’s almost a truism for veterans of the legal profession that the private firm landscape looks a lot different than it did when they started practicing. That younger attorneys are not as likely to stay with a firm, working through the ranks to become partner, is perhaps one of the biggest changes.
Many lawyers have every intention of staying with their chosen profession until they are physically unable to do so. Donald Clark Jr. had no such notion. He happily left a successful legal career behind to do something quite different: running a magic studio.
Judges, private attorneys and public interest lawyers in Cook County noticed a gap in free legal help for families with a loved one with severe mental illness. So in May, The Chicago Bar Foundation and the Center for Disability & Elder Law collaborated to launch the Mental Health Pro Bono Pilot Program, an ongoing initiative to offer assistance in the “critically important but underserved area of law.”
When intellectual property firm Fitch, Even, Tabin & Flannery sought to move its flagship office to the 21st floor of 120 S. LaSalle St., it did so with a surprising edict to itself: It had to support a 100 percent paper-free environment.
Women in Law 2018Chicago Lawyer is proud to present the 2018 Women in Law special section.