CBA Record April-May 2018

Y O U N G L A W Y E R S J O U R N A L YOUNG LAWYER'S DIVISION DIVERSITY BREAKFAST HIGHLIGHTS CHALLENGES NATIVE AMERICAN ATTORNEYS FACE IN CURRENT LEGAL COMMUNITY Comfortable Being Uncomfortable By Svetlana Gitman T alking about diversity can be hard. Often, people have to be comfort- able with being uncomfortable to

start a dialogue. With all that is going on in the world, inclusion of all races and genders is a frequent topic for discussion, especially in the legal field. This year, the focus of the Young Lawyers Division Diversity Breakfast at the American Bar Association Midyear Meeting in Vancouver, Canada was the Native American attorney experi- ence in the United States and Canada. Chicago attorney Mary Smith, current secretary of the ABA and past president of the National Native American Bar Associa- tion 2013-2015, began the conversation by asking participants to name a famous Native American television star. She was met with silence, until someone said “Disney’s Pocahontas.” She then provided some startling statistics: In the history of the United States, only three Native Americans have ever been named to the federal bench. In Canada, approximately 1% of judges in provincial superior and lower courts are Indigenous, but there has never been an Indigenous Supreme Court justice, even though Indigenous people comprise approximately 4.3% of Canada’s population. Why are there so few Native American attorneys in the legal field? Survey Results A recent study conducted by the National Native American Bar Association gath- ered information to gain a comprehensive picture of the issues confronting Native American attorneys across various sectors of the legal profession, including private practice, government, the judiciary, cor-

YLS Journal Co-Editor in Chief Natalie Chan and Svetlana Gitman (right) both attended the ABA Midyear Meeting in Vancouver on behalf of the CBA YLS.

porate legal departments, and academia. The study focused on 527 Native American attorneys and their pursuit of full inclusion in the legal profession—about 20% of the approximately 2,640 Native American attorneys in the United States. The study found that the baby boomer generation (those born between 1946 and 1964) make up about 33% of practicing Native American attorneys. Those born between 1965 and 1980 make up 48%. And those born after 1980 are only 15%. Why is the number of those born after 1980 smaller than those born between 1946 and 1980? Are fewer Native Ameri-

cans entering the legal field? Or are younger Native Americans choosing not to identify as Native American? One of the panelists, a young Native American man, explained that, growing up, his parents told him not to mention that he was Native American because he would be perceived as “different.” He told the room that when he was applying to law schools, he specifically did not check the “Native American” box on the application because he did not want to be prejudiced by this perspective. By contrast, other panelists opined that, in the United States, applicants who are not Native American

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