This lecture will be reprinted in The Record. We also do important diversity related work that is behind the scenes. For example, our Committee to Enhance Diversity in the Profession recently hosted two well attended and animated breakfasts for law firm and corporate law department management to share information about diversity strategies that work and those that do not. The Committee plans to follow up with a conference this spring. One thing I took away from the Ginsburg Lecture and Symposia and the Leadership Breakfasts is that we need to give more attention to the strategy of accommodation.
Accommodation is the key strategy that society has used to attack disability discrimination.
I can say from personal experience that accommodation works. In the case of gender discrimination, I believe that a strong policy of required accommodation to the demands of child and elder care will also work to address the practical fact that the burden of these activities falls disproportionately on women. In the same vein, we need to develop the attitude that the lawyers working part-time, men or women, should be able to treat the child or elder care demands that led to the part time arrangement as a very good reason to decline a conflicting assignment. These demands should be as good a reason for the lawyer to be unable to help out as would be the conflict of having to take a deposition in Seattle. Accommodation also helps to improve the quality of life for all lawyers.