On confronting racism at work: Town hall discussions 'an eye-opener' for many at this firm
"It was difficult to share those experiences with our colleagues," said managing partner Moy Ogilvie, but such exercises may help to heal the divide.
It’s nothing new for McCarter & English Hartford office managing partner Moy Ogilvie to walk into a courtroom or other venue and get asked if she is a clerk, or waiting to see an attorney.
In fact, the longtime attorney says it happens quite often to Black lawyers in this country.
“When we enter legal spaces there is a presumption that we are anything but attorneys,” said Ogilvie, who works out of the firm’s Hartford offices. “I am regularly assumed to be the court reporter when entering the room for a deposition.”
When faced with such situations, Ogilvie decides to take the route of less conflict.
“You don’t have time to get angry,” she said. “I do think that after a certain point in your career, you brace yourself for it. I know many Black attorneys and attorneys of color who have experienced similar things.”
McCarter & English law firm’s initiative
While tensions in race relations has long been an issue in America, it came to the forefront for many people with the May 25 killing of George Floyd, a Black man, at the hands of Minneapolis police.
It was that incident and the reaction to it, Ogilvie said, that sprouted the opportunity to showcase the experiences of Black people and people of color to a wider audience, primarily their peer attorneys.
So in early July, Ogilvie and McCarter & English colleagues worked on creating the firm’s Social Justice Project. The mission: Dismantle structural racism, and combat racial inequities in communities.
Ogilvie, one of three co-chairs, said the project looks within the firm and outside.
“The external portion focuses on issues impacting the community,” she said. “We chose to start with racial disparities in the criminal justice system. We also focus on housing and eviction issues across the region. We already have a significant eviction defense program.”
The internal part, Ogilvie said, dealt with “educating our colleagues about the history of structural and systemic racism in this country.”
It was the internal part where Ogilvie’s colleagues took part in two town hall discussions earlier this month. Most of the firm’s 375 attorneys in nine offices, including Hartford and Stamford in Connecticut, took part.
Leading the town hall discussions was moderator Joelle Murchison, executive director of Lawyers Collaborative for Diversity in Connecticut. Murchison, a Black woman, held similar meetings for attorneys at both Robinson & Cole and Shipman & Goodwin.
“There was active engagement from the participants,” she said Tuesday. “It’s important to recognize that in this society, many of us do not have the opportunity to access the lived experiences of people different from us.”
The takeaway, Murchison said, “Was that all of the employees could see and hear from their colleagues, who shared their own experiences on how racism impacted them. It was an eye-opener for many individuals.”
Optimism for the future
For Ogilvie, these exercises can help heal the divide.
“It was difficult to share those experiences with our colleagues,” she said. “It was important for us to give our colleagues a sense of what it’s like for a person of color in society.”
Ogilvie said she’s optimistic for the future, especially after seeing the outpouring from people of all races who took part in the protests sparked by Floyd’s death. She said her message for fellow attorneys of color is to keep their heads up high and don’t be distracted.
“I would tell any Black attorney to be confident in who they are, in the education they received and know that they are prepared for the job they’d been hired to do,” Ogilvie said. “I’d tell them not to let anyone stand in their way of getting their work done, and do not let anyone shake your confidence. The worst thing for any attorney of color, or any woman attorney, is feeling like they are alone and isolated. They are not.”
Murchison agreed. Race “has been the elephant in the room for a long time,” she said. “It’s important that the legal profession has been willing to face it head-on.”
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