In furthering its mission to foster a more inclusive and diverse legal profession, IILP is partnering with three law firms and HNMCP to study how disputes related to or arising from diversity issues are resolved in these firms’ daily operations. Students will identify strategies that work. Their findings will be distributed directly to the management of the participating law firms and IILP, which will use the data to create its own report on how to strengthen inclusion efforts within the legal profession.

Our Work

Step 1: Detailed background research on each of the three firms’ dispute resolution pathways for disputes having to do with diversity, supplemented by a series of key interviews with attorneys at various levels in the firms.

Step 2: Facilitated discussion at each of the three law firms presenting preliminary findings, for the purpose of identifying the relative strengths and weaknesses of each firm’s mix of formal and informal dispute resolution pathways.

Step 3: Compilation of findings and experiences across the three case studies.

Final Product

Comprehensive report to IILP, detailing the collective learning across each of the three case studies, and highlighting some of the concrete practices and policies that seemed most likely to result in the quick and effective resolution of misunderstandings stemming from diversity issues.