The legal profession is one of the world’s oldest and most enduring. Today, it is estimated that there are 1.33 million practicing attorneys in the United States. Montgomery County has an impressive number on its own; according to the Alabama State Bar Association, there are currently 1,600 lawyers here. At the most basic levels, the services lawyers provide and the role they play in our society have really not changed that much, even in the last century. But there is a major shift underway. The legal industry is embracing diversity like never before, and one of Montgomery’s most well-known lawyers, Jere Beasley, believes it will prove the distinctive difference-maker in the industry’s near and long-term outlooks. “The legal industry has changed dramatically since I came here in 1979,” the founder of Beasley Allen law firm said. “We see now how
ASE diversity is so critical to success.
Our firm is a prime example: When we
hired the first African-American lawyer, I actually received some criticism, and while that was decades ago, that still shocked me. But since then, diversity has grown in our firm and grown everywhere.” And it keeps growing, promising more positives for the
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