Our human capital is the most valuable asset we have. The collective sum of the individual differences, life experiences, knowledge, inventiveness, innovation, self-expression, unique capabilities and talent that our employees invest in their work represents a significant part of not only our culture, but our reputation and company’s achievement as well.

 

We embrace and encourage our employees’ differences in age, color, disability, ethnicity, family or marital status, gender identity or expression, language, national origin, physical and mental ability, political affiliation, race, religion, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, veteran status, and other characteristics that make our employees unique.

 

Legal Access Plans’ diversity initiatives are applicable—but not limited—to our practices and policies on recruitment and selection; compensation and benefits; professional development and training; promotions; transfers; social and recreational programs; layoffs; terminations; and the ongoing development of a work environment built on the premise of gender and diversity equity that encourages and enforces:

 

All employees of Legal Access Plans, LLC have a responsibility to treat others with dignity and respect at all times. All employees are expected to exhibit conduct that reflects inclusion during work, at work functions on or off the work site, and at all other company-sponsored and participative events. All employees are also required to attend and complete annual diversity awareness training to enhance their knowledge to fulfill this responsibility. Any employee found to have exhibited any inappropriate conduct or behavior against others may be subject to disciplinary action. Employees who believe they have been subjected to any kind of discrimination that conflicts with the company’s diversity policy and initiatives should seek assistance from a supervisor or an HR representative.

 

LegalEASE is dedicated to maintaining these policies for all employees.

 

LegalEASE understands that our client companies are exploring options to add programs and supplement current programs to enhance benefits that focus advocacy for BIPOC employees. We recognize the importance of this initiative and have undertaken to explore and develop new ways to continue to assist our legal plan members. During this exercise, we have been asked by several of our highest profile client companies to evaluate many of our service and product components. LegalEASE has created several recommended options. These options are designed to meet the many needs of corporate America in a changing world. A base component of these new options is the possibility of expanding the program services to ensure access and coverage to BIPOC employees but also by offering these options to any employee. Plan options, personnel upgrades, process improvements, and access enhancements are all part of these new changes at LegalEASE.

 

Our research definitively concludes that increasing BIPOC employee access to all facets of the American legal system and to legal help is the primary need to make the LegalEASE legal plan a better plan for these employees.

 

LegalEASE is uniquely positioned to increase this access, since its focus for all employees is on having multiple access infrastructure components to ensure that each employee, no matter what their preference, can access the LegalEASE legal plan, its plan lawyers and the legal system in a manner that is comfortable to each employee. Because LegalEASE is already keenly aware of the different needs of members, the program to increase access for BIPOC employees already has many of the components necessary to structure a better system in place.

 

Diversity can be a critical component to all employees. We believe that a diversified network of attorneys is critically important to the success and comfort all members feel when they are accessing the American legal system. Every legal need is important. Having the right attorney that each member is comfortable with is the cornerstone of a comfort level with the legal system.

 

At LegalEASE, we recognize the importance of diversity. We are committed to being a valuable member of the communities in which our plan members live and operate. Diversity in our attorney network is an important part of that commitment. A wide range of attorneys is needed to support our business operations. We are dedicated to diversifying our network attorney base to include Black and other minority-owned, women-owned, veteran-owned, LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual, Transgender)-owned and disabled-owned law firms wherever possible. We actively work to include diverse attorneys in every network building opportunity.

 

LegalEASE has established a 12% attorney diversity goal, although this goal can be impacted by diversity numbers inherent in the American legal system. In 2019, the ABA Journal published an article containing data reported by 20 states that showed that 5% of lawyers identified as African-American or Black, 5% as Latino, 2% as Asian, 2% as multiracial, and 1% as Native American. [Cassens Weiss, Debra. “Lawyer Count in US Increases 14.5% from Decade Ago...” ABA Journal 3 June 2019: ABAJournal.com. Web. 17 July 2020.] Further, of the 44 states that provided data on gender of active attorneys, 31% identified as female. Id. LegalEASE performed a review of a sample of 1,005 Network Attorneys who responded with their ethnicity/race. The results were as follows: 6.7% identified as African American or Black, 9.5% as Hispanic or Latino, 3.8% as Asian, 1% as Asian-East Indian, and 1% as Other. This sample of LegalEASE network attorneys reflects a 21.9% attorney diversity in terms of ethnicity/race. Further, we performed a review of 1,116 Network Attorneys who provided their gender and found that 36.2% identified a female and .9% identified as other. These numbers reflect LegalEASE’s dedication to maintaining and continuing to grow our diverse group of contracted attorneys with the objective of serving the interests and needs of our plan members. LegalEASE makes routine and repeated attempts each quarter in its recruiting of the diverse attorneys for the purposes of adding these attorneys to the LegalEASE attorney network. Our goal to ensure that we can provide every BIPOC members with the most comfortable match in network attorneys that meets their needs and breaks down the barriers, biases, and distrust that many employees might have in using attorneys to protect their families from legal issues. LegalEASE is committed to helping every employee in every way that they need to protect their family and their assets from legal disaster.