This article was originally published in the July/Aug 2021 issue of San Diego Lawyer Magazine.
By David A. Niddrie
San Diego County is an extremely diverse community. Our diversity, however, is not represented at the management and leadership levels of many legal organizations.
According to our bylaws, the mission of the San Diego County Bar Association (SDCBA) is to “serv[e] the public and the profession by enhancing the legal system and promoting justice, professional excellence, and respect for the law.”
In working to fulfill our mission, the SDCBA has pledged to actively promote, practice, introduce, and inspire “diversity, equity, and inclusion” in the legal process, within San Diego’s professional community, and among the clients we serve.
What does that mean? To answer that question, it may be best to start by defining our terms.
Diversity is the presence of differences that may include race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity, nationality, socioeconomic status, language, (dis)ability, age, religious commitment, or political perspective.
Equity is promoting justice, impartiality, and fairness within the procedures, processes, and distribution of resources by institutions or systems.
Inclusion is an outcome to ensure all individuals (because of their diversity) feel and/or actually are welcome to participate fully in the decision-making processes and development opportunities within an organization or group.
In sum, the SDCBA has recognized that our profession, our legal community, and indeed, our entire justice system would benefit from the Bar’s recognition of an asset at our disposal (the diversity within our community), which would greatly “enhanc[e] the legal system and promot[e] justice, professional excellence, and respect for the law.” The SDCBA — both its individual members and as an organization — has therefore committed to encouraging the use of our differences to improve the way we practice, process, decide, manage, view, and participate in the law.
Below is a list of the firms and organizations that have already signed the SDCBA’s diversity pledge. All legal organizations with six or more attorneys are encouraged to join in the pledge by filling out and submitting the form at https://www.cognitoforms.com/SanDiegoCountyBarAssociation/DiversityPledge.
There are many reasons to embrace the “diversity, equity, and inclusion” within our professional community. Some are obvious. We all can see that social barriers have led to unfair conditions that skew distribution of society’s benefits and burdens. Inclusion breaks down those barriers by addressing our unknown biases. It is also clear that the legal profession can better serve the San Diego community if it reflects the diversity of those we represent. Less obvious are the benefits of “diversity, equity, and inclusion” to you and your organizations. I speak from experience when I say, diversity enhances insight, perspective, problem-solving, expression of ideas, communication of thought, reasonableness, and practicality. These are all tools we dearly need to practice law.
Please join the pledge. In legal jargon, it is a “win-win.” And to those who have already taken and acted on the pledge, we offer our heartfelt thanks. Well done.
David A. Niddriehas been a trial and certified appellate lawyer in Southern California since 1979. After serving five years as a research attorney with several state appellate and federal courts (including a stint as Staff Counsel for the Supreme Court of the United States), David practiced law at several large local firms and eventually founded Niddrie Addams Fuller Singh LLP, San Diego’s first all-appellate law firm. David’s firm, Niddrie, Fuller, Adams and Singh, was one of the first signatories to the 2021 SDCBA Diversity Pledge.