Final Chair Message: Diversity in the Bar & Final Thoughts

Stephen D. Hamilton

This will be my final Family Law News Message, as my term as Chair will end at the California Lawyers Association Annual Meeting in October in Monterey. The Family Law Section and FLEXCOM will then be in the very capable hands of incoming Chair Stephen Montagna of Fairfield, California. So I will use this final message as a proverbial soap box to address a subject that is important to our profession and an identified priority of the California State Bar, the California Supreme Court and the Judicial Council.

Diversity Within the Bar

The California State Bar published a revised "Fact Sheet: Advancing Diversity and Inclusion in the Legal Profession" on May 14, 2019. That fact sheet notes that due to a statutory change effective in 2019, special emphasis on access and inclusion are now "core to the Bar’s public protection mission." The Fact Sheet then provides statistical information on bar diversity. Under a heading that speaks for itself, the following statistics are provided: