Why the California Bar Is Asking Lawyers About Sexual Orientation
California's state bar has added some probing new questions to a survey of its licensees in an attempt to fulfill its mission of supporting "greater access to, and inclusion in, the legal system."
The voluntary survey, presented to attorneys when they log on to the bar's website, asks members expanded questions about their gender and sexual orientations, including whether they identify as "two spirit," a distinct gender status in Native American communities, and whether they are pansexual, asexual or another binary sexual identity.
The bar is also asking new questions about lawyers' job satisfaction, including what might make them happier in their careers. The revamped survey first appeared last month.
Jonah Lamb, a bar spokesman, said the anonymized results will be used "to better understand the state of the legal profession in a time of rapid economic, technological and demographic change in California."
The data will be compiled in an initial report by the end of the year, Lamb said, and used to identify obstacles that exist to retaining and advancing "diverse attorneys" in the profession.
While the bar split a year ago from its professional sections—they're now organized under the California Lawyers Association—the regulatory body has maintained its mission of promoting diversity in the legal ranks. Last week, bar leaders adopted a plan to study attrition rates for students of color at California law schools and to scrutinize bar exam questions "from a diversity and inclusion perspective."
In the past, the bar has surveyed members every five years. Questions typically centered on the size of an attorney's practice, the types of clients he or she accepted and whether that attorney carried malpractice insurance. The new survey asks more questions about licensee's personal traits.
"We expanded our survey questions to reflect best practices for collecting race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation," Lamb said. "We also expanded our questions around career satisfaction in order to better understand over all career experience across the attorney population."
The California bar, the Judicial Council and the governor's office already report aggregate demographic information each year on state-licensed attorneys, appointed judges and judicial applicants.
There was initial pushback to at least one of the questions. When judges were first asked to report their sexual orientation in 2011, a question mandated by a new state law, 40 percent refused to say. That percentage dropped to just under 30 percent by 2017.
Lamb said about 100,000 surveys have been completed. "We have received about 50 calls altogether regarding the survey, with a small fraction of those reflecting complaints about the sexual orientation and gender questions," he said.
Data collection practices vary among bars other states.
Michigan, for instance, reports a wide range of aggregate information about their members' races and ethnicities—but not sexual orientation—where they practice, what their age ranges are and where they attended law school. New York updates a limited range of vital statistics about its bar members each quarter based on information submitted voluntarily by licensees.
California's new bar survey will be available throughout 2019 and updated annually, Lamb said.
Read more:
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