News Releases

State Bar of California Names Office of Access & Inclusion and Announces Related Initiatives

The State Bar of California has named a new Office of Access & Inclusion, which will work to better integrate the agency's access, diversity, and inclusion work with the overall mission and strategic priorities.

The newly-minted State Bar Office of Access & Inclusion brings together grantmaking of the Legal Services Trust Fund, policymaking of the Center on Access to Justice, and the State Bar’s diversity work. This restructure will focus the State Bar’s access and inclusion work, and build a framework to ensure that innovations and policy developments align with decisions about discretionary legal services grants and other grantmaking.

This office will also help ensure that diversity and inclusion have a "built in not bolted on" approach.

One core function of this office is to oversee the State Bar's legal aid grants. The State Bar distributed approximately $50 million in 2018 to legal aid organizations providing direct legal services to low-income Californians, including immigrants, seniors, veterans, and people with disabilities.

"Our job is to make sure that all Californians have access to qualified, ethical attorneys, and that shouldn't be dependent on how much money you make. We also believe that California is stronger when the legal profession reflects the diversity of California – across race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation," said Leah T. Wilson, Executive Director of the State Bar of California.

The State Bar's own data and other surveys of the legal profession in California and nationwide show that women, people of color, and LGBT people are still widely underrepresented in the profession.

Additional upcoming measures to promote access, diversity, and inclusion are expected to include:

• Diversity in the Legal Profession Summit
• Initiate a review of the structure of committees that develop policy and support legal services grantmaking
• Review of the statutory IOLTA (Interest on Lawyers Trust Accounts) formula to ensure that funds are distributed in an equitable manner
• Equity analysis of who is served by State Bar grants
• Modernize elimination of bias training for new attorneys
• Development of diversity and implicit bias curriculum for law students
• Implicit bias training for State Bar staff for the first time
• Diversity and inclusion analysis of State Bar governing bodies
• Impact report of State Bar legal aid grants

"State Bar leadership is committed to ensuring transparent and equitable distribution of legal services funds. We also want to be sure we are addressing the important goal of diversifying the legal profession," Wilson said.

Last year the Board of Trustees also adopted a new mission statement that specifically includes access to justice and inclusion as core components of the State Bar's work.