Racism and Legal Culture: Is There Room for Diversity in the Legal Profession
![handle is hein.journals/alblr45 and id is 1219 raw text is: RACISM AND LEGAL CULTURE 75
RACISM AND LEGAL CULTURE:
IS THERE ROOM FOR DIVERSITY IN THE LEGAL PROFESSION?
JOAN BROCKMAN*
I. INTRODUCTION
The nutshell summary of these articles is that Charles C. Smith tells us what is wrong with
the legal profession and optimistically what can be done to improve diversity, and W. Wesley
Pue explains, from an historical perspective, why there may be resistence to diversity. I will
use their articles as a springboard to comment on racism and legal culture in the legal
profession.
Smith makes the following points in his article:
(1) The legal profession has failed to recognize racism within itself;
(2) There is a lack of information about the racialized composition of the legal
profession and judiciary;
(3) There has been an undramatic increase [or perhaps a decrease] in the numbers of
Aboriginal lawyers and lawyers from subordinate racialized groups;'
(4) Both law schools and the legal profession are the agents who keep the profession
largely white;
(5) There are many examples of what law schools and the legal profession are doing
and could be doing to make the legal profession more representative of Canadian
society in terms of Aboriginal lawyers and lawyers from racialized groups.2
I1. DOES THE LEGAL PROFESSION RECOGNIZE RACISM?
Perception is as important as reality. In a survey of Alberta lawyers conducted in 2003,
91 percent of racialized lawyers and 73 percent of Caucasian lawyers thought there was
discrimination in the legal profession against lawyers belonging to racial or ethnic minority
groups. Only 3.5 percent of racialized lawyers and 14.9 percent of Caucasian lawyers
thought there was no discrimination.3
Professor, School of Criminology, Simon Fraser University. These are comments on articles by Charles
C. Smith and W. Wesley Pue presented to Canadian Lawyers in the 21st Century, 26 October 2007
Edmonton, Alberta. I would like to thank Susan B. Boyd for her helpful comments on an earlier draft.
Charles C. Smith, Who is Afraid of the Big Bad Social Constructionists? Or Shedding Light on the
Unpardonable Whiteness of the Canadian Legal Profession (2008) 45:5 Alta. L. Rev. 55 at 57.
2 See also Susan V.R. Billington's recent summary of the work done by the Law Society of Alberta (LSA)
on this issue: Law Society of Alberta, Diversity & Equality Initiatives: 1991-2006, online: LSA
<http://www.lawsocietyalberta.com/files/reports/EqualityDiversityInitiatives 2006.pdf >.
Joan Brockman, An Update on Gender and Diversity Issues in the Legal Profession in Alberta, 1991 -
2003 in Elizabeth A. Sheehy & Sheila McIntyre, eds., Callingfor Change: Women, Law, and the Legal
Profession (Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 2006) 237 at 240 [Brockman, Update on Gender];](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/alblr45&div=63&collection=journals&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Racism and Legal Culture: Is There Room for Diversity in the Legal Profession
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