LSC/NLADA 

First Regional Conversation 

On Diversity 

Region III Project Directors Meeting 

Clayton, Missouri

September 29, 2001 

Legal Services Corporation
LSC/NLADA First Regional Conversation on Diversity 

Region III Project Directors Meeting 

Clayton Missouri 

September 29, 2001 

Background 

Approximately sixteen program directors and five representatives of NLADA and 

LSC came together on the second day of the Region III Project Directors Meeting to 

discuss diversity challenges faced by legal services programs in that geographic area. 

The discussion lasted a little over two hours. Montrose Cones and Deborah Howard of 

Karp Consulting Group led it. This was the third diversity discussion facilitated by the 

Karp Group. Three objectives guided the September 29 meeting; they were: 

 To identify and prioritize the diversity related issues facing participants in their 

legal services communities; 

 To increase participants’ awareness of diversity issues; and 

 To enhance leadership skills necessary for being effective in a diverse legal 

services environment. 

Benefits of Diversity 

 Participants considered the broad ramifications of diversity, including race and 

ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation, age and disability, along with other aspects of an 

inclusive community. They discussed the benefits to themselves of focusing time and 

effort on increasing diversity in their programs. The positive results included personal 

growth, improvement of communication, enjoyment of other cultures and outlooks, 

broader experiences, enrichment of work environment and learning opportunities, and 

more fun. 

 They explored what benefits diversity would bring to their organizations. These 

were a more accurate reflection of their client communities along with more insight into 

and support of their various constituencies, and exposure to and (consequent) deeper 

understanding of different cultures. Programs would experience an improvement in the 

quality of the work, higher morale among staff, increased opportunity for resource 

development a more stable workforce and enriched decision-making with better 

outcomes.
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Barriers to Obtaining Greater Diversity 

1. The executive director’s perspective 

 In spite of the obvious benefits, difficulties bar the way to achieving a diverse 

workforce, and real determination is needed to overcome them. One of the biggest 

impediments for each participant is that change is difficult and takes time. Educating 

staff to the benefits of diversity and defining the boundaries of the change sought or 

anticipated also require thought, patience, time and a realistic assessment of the 

frustration involved. Making big changes requires confronting anxieties and fears, 

opening up personal perspectives and abandoning stereotypes. All of these necessitate 

hard work and a willingness to take on risks. 

 Participants noted that bringing new and very different staff into a program could 

threaten existing staff members and the office culture. People will worry that if someone 

diverse is hired, they may be fired. Executive directors also need to help their boards 

understand the importance of these issues and move forward in ways that address 

diversity needs thoughtfully and appropriately. Directors’ relationships with board 

members on this subject can sometimes require more attention than their efforts with 

staff. 

2. Difficulties facing an organization 

Organizations experience great challenges in moving toward a more diverse 

workforce, also. Developing an organizational culture that supports diversity is a 

threshold step, and that requires an investment of time, money, and other resources. A 

decision must be made about where and what diversity is needed and then an effort made 

to overcome the organization’s prejudices about the identified group(s). All require 

management engagement. Recruiting takes time and other resources; retaining new staff 

is also difficult and may require shifts in the organizational culture. 

If diverse leaders are sought, there is the added responsibility of finding the right 

individual(s) and helping them move up the ladder. Another issue that programs have to 

grapple with is the additional changes a program might face when a diversity strategy is 

implemented. For example, a blind attorney could require additional technology so that 

she can operate as independently as possible, as well as a reader to assist in reviewing 

documents. 

Diversity Related Issues in the Region III Legal Services Community 

1. Internal issues 

 The group identified internal issues, that is, those that affected program staff, 

board, and management. For Region III, they are gender, age, religion, intolerance for 
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different values and lifestyles, recruiting, retaining, promoting and firing staff, conflict 

resolution, diversity training, diversity in leadership, fluency in other languages, 

achieving diversity in small offices, and unions and diversity. 

2. External issues 

The external diversity issues are the challenges of learning and meeting the needs 

of different cultures and communities in a service area, the limited number of potential 

staff from diverse communities, challenges of hiring and retaining diverse and talented 

staff with legal services salaries, law school debt, changing the status quo that has been in 

place for many years, acceptance of diversity in staff by clients and funders, and the 

changing demographics in the Region III locales, among others. And although 

population profiles are changing, there remain areas in Region III where it could be 

difficult (isolating, risky) for non-whites to live, particularly rural environments where 

the population is overwhelmingly white and Christian. For one who does not “blend” (at 

least at first glance), it is hard to work and live in such an area, and challenging to 

recruiters to find diverse staff willing to do so. 

3. Most urgent issues 

The group prioritized the issues, selecting the top three from each list. Several 

issues received the same number of votes so that the top three stretched to the top four, 

five, or six. 

The top internal issues are recruitment, language issues, intolerance of different 

values and lifestyles AND diversity in leadership AND aging organization. 

The top external issues are hiring and compensation, law school debt, limited 

diversity in the area AND being known by clients of diverse communities. 

Leadership Concerns 

The group then turned to leadership and looked at leadership, power, and 

privilege. Region III participants examined privileges based on race and ethnicity, 

profession (lawyer), gender, age and geography. This discussion focused on asking 

questions to help executive directors examine who leaders are and how they are formed. 

It did not result in any conclusions.