Though diversity has become the latest tool in the expansion of world race relations, a spotlight on its effectiveness is still raised by many in corporate America. For the past two decades, companies focused on affirmative action policies to remedy race relation issues in the workplace. But, as the backlash of affirmative action is felt, diversity has been introduced as the alternative approach.
One industry swiftly making strides in the diversity arena is the legal profession. On July 20, 1999, President Clinton, in conjunction with Attorney General Janet Reno and Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder made a call to action to the legal profession. The call appealed to lawyers "to ensure that the legal profession reflects the diversity of the society at large, so that all communities can enjoy equal access to our system of justice." Hence, Lawyers For One America (LFOA) was formed.
Executive Director, Teveia Barnes recently heralded advice to an audience at a United Nations conference that they must "find the intersection of their individual dreams and the interdependence on our global.com village." Barnes, who has been in the legal profession for more than 20 years, has been a transactional lawyer, mentor and architect of several diversity programs.
Prior to LFOA, the Rice University and New York University School of Law graduate, served as the Associate General Counsel and Senior Vice President of Bank of America, where she helped to launch the institute's diversity initiative. Barnes spent her early years at New York's Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and Sage Gray Todd & Sims.
Rave reviews and exciting promise have been synonymous with Barnes' reputation. Fred Krebs, President of the American Corporate Counsel Association, (ACCA), echoes the sentiment that Barnes has brought a lot of "talent and energy to LFOA." While LFOA has made significant effort which predates Teveia in terms of coming together as an ad hoc committee that supported diversity, Teveia is someone who can keep things moving in a very positive way." National Bar Association, President Harold Pope also speaks highly of Barnes, describing her in a word as "powerful."
Diversity & the Bar recently caught up with Barnes amidst her hectic schedule to discuss her goals, dreams and vision for LFOA:
D&B: Your work thus far has received very positive feedback. To what do you attribute your work ethics and success [in LFOA]?
TB: I attribute my good work ethics to my upbringing and family values. I also found that with such ethics as honesty and integrity, I have always gotten positive reinforcement back. It's the only way to deal with people and it's important to me to make a contribution. Also, the core group of people I work with at LFOA have aided greatly in making the vision happen.
D&B: Why is LFOA relevant at this point in history? What makes this organization unique?
TB: It has a unique collaboration within the legal community, which was formed to assist corporations, government agencies and the judiciary to take on the mission of building one America. LFOA will collect and magnify the work of attorneys and organizations participating in this effort. On the other hand, it will also identify leaders of the legal community who are not supportive of the initiative.
D&B: Discuss some of your future initiatives.
TB: LFOA will focus on collecting information about all practices and programs within the legal profession. It will also include other professions and industries aimed at increasing access to legal resources to assist people and communities of color in the study. Once the information is collected, LFOA will identify those programs considered to be model practices. These practices will then be promoted nation wide, while LFOA will use and disseminate currently available information to establish a baseline for all their efforts. Lastly, action teams will be established to focus on implementing strategic plans, and a final report will be sent to President Clinton by July 2000.
D&B: What do you see as the difference between affirmative action and diversity? Some say that affirmative action deals more with quotas and diversity deals with acceptance and equity. What are your thoughts on that?
TB: I prefer not to focus on affirmative action, but on diversity. I do believe it is crucial and essential to diversify the profession, and to do it within the confines of the law.
D&B: In your speech to the UN, you indicated that women of color by the tens of millions, hold the worse jobs and are the most exploited. How does the working woman prevail with the crossing of technology and tribalism?
TB: For women of color the glass ceiling is further away for them to reach. We tend to be forgotten, and relegated to positions of subservience that we need to overcome. Women of color are slower to rise [professionally] than European women who are more accepted by European men. We are invisible, even though we have a huge pool of talent. We need to make people aware of the broad spectrum of talents offered by women of color. It's a constant journey, but our goal is to make sure that we learn to appreciate the leverage we have and don't take our talents for granted. Our concern is not to make others comfortable with us, but to make them learn to deal with us.
D&B: Does the LFOA itself provide mentoring programs or summer internships for young people interested in the profession or in furthering the mission of the organization?
TB: No, LFOA does not provide internships, however we serve as a referral base for others and we link people with currently established programs.
Other bar associations working in conjunction with LFOA include: the National Bar Association, the Bar Association of San Francisco, Association of the Bar of the City of New York and Washington, DC's based National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA).
Top Priorities
 Fred Krebs, President, American Corporate Counsel Association (ACCA) |
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 Teveia Barnes, Executive Director, Lawyers for One America (LFOA) |
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 Harold Pope, President, National Bar Association (NBA) |
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From the May 2000 issue of Diversity & The Bar®