Leading figures from the Institute for Inclusion in the Legal Profession (IILP) have written to ABA leaders asking to ‘eliminate bias and enhance diversity’. The group’s chairman, Mark Firestone, added that the ABA must fulfil its objectives to promote ‘full and equal participation in the association, our profession and the justice system by all persons’ by adding diversity to the model rules of professional conduct.
New language
The IILP also suggested that the ABA’s standing committee on ethics and professional responsibility work with other entities to propose new language for the model rules for consideration by the association’s policy-making body, the House of Delegates, no later than its mid-year meeting in 2014.
Mr Firestone said: ‘The Rules shape our core values and inspire and instil in each lawyer the dedication to improve the composition of the profession so that it serves and reflects our society. Through the model rules, lawyers are given a set of principles to guide them and help them be better lawyers.’
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