On Wednesday, April 27th, Professor Cyra Akila Choudhury spoke at the Quintairos, Prieto, Wood & Boyer diversity conference in Chicago that brought nearly 200 lawyers from across the firm, from other large law firms, corporations, and legal organizations to discuss issues of inclusion of minorities in the law. QPWB is the largest women and minority owned law firm in the country with over 340 attorneys with ten offices in Florida. At the invitation of a partner at QPWB, Professor Choudhury spoke about the effects of stereotypes and bias in the hiring and evaluation of Asian lawyers and also strategies for overcoming bias and stereotyping. Specifically, she spoke about the use of double standards and the effects of attribution and evaluation bias that often holds minority lawyers back.
Professor Choudhury also spoke about FIU College of Law’s faculty and student diversity, it’s reputation as a producer of well-trained minority and women lawyers and it’s excellent faculty scholarship in gender, race, and sexual orientation and the law. The panel on which she spoke included an Associate General Counsel for Allstate, a partner at McDermott, Will & Emory, and a small firm owner practicing immigration in Florida– all providing different experiences in achieving success in their respective contexts. The audience included a large number of partners at different firms both locally and nationally who were very engaged in promoting minorities and women in the law.
More information about the conference can be found at QPWB’s website: http://www.qpwblaw.com/images/QPWB_DIVERSITY_CONF_AGENDA_final.pdf