Committee Receives Mass Bar Association Access to Justice Race, Equity and Inclusion Award

On May 25, our Committee was honored to accept the Mass Bar Association’s Access to Justice Race, Equity and Inclusion Award for our work on the Report Summarizing Affinity Bar Town Hall Meetings. We acknowledge that this award would not have been possible without the courageous voices and work of the BIPOC and LGBTQA+ members of the bar. Read more about our recognition and view Justice Margot Botsford’s acceptance speech below.

This year, the SJC Standing Committee on Lawyer Well-Being broke down barriers to discussing racial equity and systemic racism in the Massachusetts legal community. Having conversations about racial equity and racism in our profession, and in particular within the court system, has proved difficult. However, the Well-Being Committee took on this difficult task by, among other things, amplifying the voices, work, and lived experiences of seven Massachusetts affinity bar associations. One of the goals of the committee is to “effect real, meaningful change in the profession to not only ensure that systemically oppressed legal professionals in Massachusetts receive equal treatment, but that they receive the support they need to achieve equitable access to and success in the profession, and that the barriers, challenges and insults they face every day are reduced, mitigated and, ultimately, eliminated.”

In an effort to better understand the barriers faced by such lawyers, judges, and law students in Massachusetts, the committee began hosting a series of town hall meetings in June 2020 with various Massachusetts affinity bar associations. These listening sessions provided a venue for leaders and members of such affinity bar associations to share what they had actually experienced as members or aspiring members of the Massachusetts bar. The professionals shared heartbreaking lived experiences of working in the legal profession across the state. Many of the experiences centered around the courts.

In February 2021, the committee released its groundbreaking Report Summarizing Affinity Bar Town Hall Meetings. This report was read across the state, including by players at every level of the court system, helping to elevate the voices of legal professionals from Black, Indiginous, People of Color, and LGBTQIA+ populations. It is so difficult to raise race, systemic racism, or other forms of bias in most, if not all, employment settings, and particularly in court. However, it is even harder for attorneys experiencing racism and harassment in court to speak up for their client. The committee's work -- including its report -- is an important step in breaking down this barrier. Every client is entitled to zealous advocacy and lawyers can do this best when they themselves are not being targeted or marginalized. Further, the Massachusetts legal profession as a whole will be best able to serve the public when it reflects the diversity of the Commonwealth.

The report also created change. Since its release, the Trial Court has implemented an optionally anonymous email and telephone hotline where attorneys can report incidents they witness or experience that they believe reflect bias or discrimination, even if these incidents do not rise to the level of severity needed to bring a formal legal complaint, and many public and private organizations throughout the Commonwealth have sought greater input from the committee and the affinity bar associations as they attempt to create transformational change. Beyond the report, the committee has continued to work alongside the affinity bar associations and to develop additional initiatives aimed at addressing racial equity in the Commonwealth's legal profession. The committee's full-time Fellow specifically focuses on the intersection of well-being and diversity, equity and inclusion. In addition, the Committee has issued a public DEI Statement (available at lawyerwellbeingma.org/dei-statement), partnered with other groups to organize the Amplifying Unheard Voices presentation series that has highlighted the perspectives of BIPOC and trans and gender nonconforming individuals in the Massachusetts legal community, hosted regular meetings with leaders of all Massachusetts bar associations where issues of racial equity have been addressed, organized and hosted regular meetings with a Legal Well-Being Network where DEI has consistently been discussed, and publicized important events and initiatives being hosted by various Massachusetts affinity bar associations.

The SJC Standing Committee on Lawyer Well-Being could not have accomplished this work without the courageous voices and work of the members of the Massachusetts affinity bar associations. These are: Asian American Lawyers Association of Massachusetts; Hispanic National Bar Association, Region I; Massachusetts Association of Hispanic Attorneys, Massachusetts Black Lawyers Association, Massachusetts Black Women Attorneys, Massachusetts LGBTQ Bar Association, South Asian Bar Association of Greater Boston, and Women's Bar Association. The committee stands on the shoulders of decades of work that the affinity bars and other BIPOC-led organizations have achieved, and seeks to support and amplify the important messages of these organizations in order to make progress toward achieving true justice and equity.

For its commitment to creating change for every lawyer in this state, the Massachusetts Bar Association is proud to present tonight’s inaugural Access to Justice Race, Equity and Inclusion Award to the Supreme Judicial Court’s Standing Committee on Lawyer Well-Being. Here to accept the award is Committee Co-Chair, Retired SJC Justice Margot Botsford.