A34 | CLEVELAND JEWISH NEWS | CJN.ORG
JANUARY 31, 2025
LOCAL LAWYERS
Diverse firms better reflect and serve their communities LILLIE ASKARI laskari@cjn.org
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aw firms embracing diversity benefit both clients and attorneys, according to lawyers Alexa “Lexi” Stovsky and Jill G. Okun. “(Diversity) promotes fairness and equity, but it also enhances performance,” Okun, a partner at Porter Wright Morris & Arthur LLP in Cleveland, told the Cleveland Jewish News. “It better positions the firm to handle what is becoming an increasingly diverse population. ...Our clients’ customers are more diverse, our country’s more and more diverse, so having a more diverse workplace opens the door to everyone and differing ideas.” She said diversity creates a “hospitable” environment and broadens horizons,” which can enhance overall performance. Okun, co-chair of her firm’s products liability group, said “To show you are a diverse and inclusive employer attracts more (customers and employees) than the opposite.” She said that diverse litigation teams can likely connect better with juries, made up of a cross section of the community.
Okun
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According to Okun, her employer has committed to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, programs and certifications, noting that it offers multiple employee resource groups “to promote and ensure that there is fairness, equity and promotion of all peoples and cultures.” Okun said that in her almost 40 years of practicing law, the landscape of law firm diversity has changed, but it still can improve. “It is not 50-50 ... there’s still a way to go for full equity, in terms of gender and other minorities, in law firms,” Okun said. According to Lexi Stovsky, associate attorney at Brown Immigration Law in Cleveland, her firm hires attorneys and
support staff from diverse backgrounds and life experiences. “A majority of people at our firm speak more than one language and many come from migrant families or families that may have firsthand experience with the United States immigration system,” Stovsky told the CJN. She said that diversity in law firms helps attorneys and clients and that the legal system’s dominance by “white men” is apparent “in the way that the law is written, how the law is applied and (how it) affects the way that people think about the legal profession.” “Generally, having attorneys with diverse backgrounds is incredibly important to have well-informed discussions that cover varying perspectives and come from people who have had different experiences in their lives,” Stovsky said. “This diversity, and having the opportunity to see someone who looks like you or who has gone through a similar experience is especially relevant to immigration law where we have clients from all over the world and who may not have seen someone who looks like them or who has gone through a similar experience
to them in an attorney or representative capacity.” She added that diverse attorneys may also help bridge cultural gaps and stigmas that clients may unintentionally have, noting that some of her clients have never seen women in positions of power, “so providing them with outstanding representation can really change their way of thinking and their view of the world.” Stovsky said her firm covers all areas of immigration law, including defending individuals in court from deportation, assisting individuals with obtaining their green cards and acquiring citizenship. As an immigration attorney whose work includes defending individuals faced with deportation and assisting clients to gain U.S. citizenship, Stovsky said that she enjoys working with people from different backgrounds from all around the world. “All firms, no matter their practice area(s), should place a greater emphasis on not only hiring diverse attorneys, but also providing the space and opportunity for conversations about diverse experiences and how ...diverse individuals view the law, the world and how the world perceives them.”
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