Talent is everywhere, opportunity is not.  The profession has made some improvement in relation to recruitment but how do we retain lawyers from all backgrounds within the profession?  The ReImagine Law team are joined by Debo Nwauzu (founder of the Black Lawyers Directory) and James Alao (Clifford Chance).  James and Debo discuss a number of themes including; the challenges with the breadth of the phrase 'BAME' when trying to identify specific challenges around inclusion, how possible it is to bring your whole self to work, and the importance of work allocation to enable equality of opportunity.

This episode encourages listeners to undertake some practical actions after listening to the episode. 

• Speak to people from the 'inside out' to understand and learn what the culture is really like within an organisation.  Then consider, what suggestions you could make to create a greater sense of inclusion in a team of which you are a member?
• Make yourself aware of 'unconscious bias' and how that might be impacting your style as an colleague / manager / fellow student, and how you create inclusive team cultures. We all have it, and can reduce it through awareness.  

Resources

• Read the bias page on the Pearn Kandola website  
• Watch this YouTube video titled: "How can racism at work: The danger of indifference help?" by Professor Binna Kandola OBE
• Read or listen to the Book "Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People" by Mahzarin R Banaji. 
• Consider undertaking the Project Implicit Test run by Harvard University where you can test and see where your own unconscious bias may lie by taking Implicit Association Test/s: https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/selectatest.html