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RDDHI is taking steps to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion at or firm. Smaller and mid-sized firms face challenges when it comes to diversity, but steps can be taken to build a more diverse firm culture.

Many businesses, including law firms, recognize the benefits of promoting diversity and inclusion in the workforce. Successful law firms will have attorneys from diverse backgrounds that better represent the clients and communities they serve.

What Are the Challenges for Smaller Firms?

Today, nearly every large law firm in the United States has a diversity and inclusion department. With their wealth of resources, the big law firms can allocate significant amounts of time and money to diversity and inclusion efforts. Many of the larger firms have diversity directors with extensive training and experience, and that experience often commands hefty salaries that are not in the budget for small, mid-sized, and growing firms. Diversity directors can devote themselves full-time to addressing issues of diversity and inclusion in recruiting and retaining diverse attorneys and staff, as well as guiding community outreach. 

However, small-to-mid-size law firms are sometimes challenged by the limited resources they can allocate to diversity and inclusion efforts. To address these challenges, many law firms must depend on their own attorneys to take action to improve their diversity and inclusion efforts within their firm and their profession. Despite the limited resources, small and mid-sized law firms still have the capability to achieve a diverse, equitable, and inclusive culture within their firms by taking a variety of steps.

Pursuing Diversity at RDDHI

To be dedicated to our clients, we understood that we had to become advocates and make a commitment to diversity that promotes the employment and advancement of individuals with different backgrounds and experiences. While employing candidates with a variety of backgrounds is the start, we know that once an associate decides to work with us, it is our job to make sure that they receive adequate support to become a successful attorney.

To accomplish these goals, RDDHI conducted several listening sessions with our diverse associates to ask them what diversity, equity, and inclusion meant to them and how our firm could best serve them. These were not the easiest conversations to have. Having just elected our first Black equity member and having just one current female equity member, our firm still had work to do to reach our stated goals of creating equitable opportunities for younger and diverse associates. We could not be blind to the disparity at the leadership level and needed to confront it head-on to consider strategies to bring about improved results for our firm.

RDDHI’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee

In 2019, Rasmussen Dickey Dioszeghy Henry Ijei established our Diversity Committee. We had recently hired several new associates who represented the most diverse part of our law firm. Soon after, RDDHI expanded the scope of the committee and renamed it Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI).

To improve equity efforts, there must be a buy-in at every level of the firm. RDDHI attorney Justin Ijei, our firm’s first Black equity partner, was chosen to chair our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee. The committee worked to define terms, discussed how to put words into action, and built trust to accomplish difficult tasks together in a transparent way.

Words into Action

As a result of our committee’s discussions and work, RDDHI is implementing several new initiatives in 2021:

  • Renewing efforts to recruit and retain diverse candidates
  • Creating a mentorship program to help with career development, explicitly aimed at advocating for personal business development
  • Developing opportunities for young diverse attorneys to network
  • Celebrating diverse heritages, cultures, and religious practices through firm-wide education
  • Training employees on the importance of DEI
  • Collecting data and tracking the success of these efforts

Our leadership knows that it is imperative that these initiatives are effectively implemented. Promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion within the firm is not just a feel-good pursuit. Our clients, our communities, and our attorneys require progress toward a more just and equitable future, and that progress starts with us in our offices. RDDHI is excited to put these initiatives into practice and strengthen our diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in 2021 and beyond.

How To Promote Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Smaller Law Firms

All law firms, regardless of size, have the ability to foster an inclusive and diverse culture within their firm. While smaller firms may not have the deep pockets to implement the types of diversity programs that larger operations have, simple steps can be taken to build a more inclusive and diverse firm.

Identify and Listen To Diverse Voices

The first step is to identify voices within your firm that may not have been heard previously. Ensure that attorneys and staff from diverse backgrounds have a seat at the table. Take time to listen to these voices and accept difficult constructive criticism. Acknowledge the challenges that attorneys of diverse backgrounds face within the firm, in the legal industry at large, and in life in general.

Develop Measurable Actions

It is easy to pay lip service to the concepts of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Likewise, it is easy to get bogged down in your firm’s day-to-day business. However, to ensure that your firm is moving in the right direction, your firm must commit to concrete and measurable actions and outcomes.

With your diverse attorneys taking the lead, determine what actions the firm can take to break down barriers to success. RDDHI’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee identified business development as an area where diverse attorneys could benefit from one-on-one mentoring and tracking results over time.  RDDHI has implemented a quarterly mentoring program to supplement annual reviews where mentors will discuss with associates their current workload, client contacts, and plans for unique business development opportunities specific to their own career desires and skills.

Continue the Process

We realize the importance of building an inclusive culture at our firm and understand the time and commitment required to make sure the firm continues to progress. We highly recommend that other small and mid-sized firms doing this work continue to listen, measure the successes and failures of their efforts, and make the necessary adjustments to improve. Pursuing these efforts will be both challenging and rewarding. There is always room for improvement, and it is essential that we collectively continue to listen to diverse voices both within and without the office. Every firm, no matter the size, has a role to play in making the practice of law more equitable.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion.

RDDHI believes that small and mid-sized firms can also have an impact on building a more diverse, inclusive, and equitable legal industry. See what we’re doing to foster a diverse firm culture at RDDHI.

DEI at RDDHI

RDDHI's office in Kansas City, MO.

Rasmussen Dickey Dioszeghy Henry Ijei is proud to announce our ranking on the 2021 U.S. News & World Report–Best Lawyers “Best Law Firms” list!

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Of course, our clients already know that RDDHI is among the best law firms providing nationwide coverage for not only products liability and toxic torts, but also insurance law, environmental law, commercial litigation, and much more.

RDDHI delivers unparalleled dedication, flexibility, and value to our clients. Our attorneys have the extensive experience, industry knowledge, and personalized attention you need when facing product liability or toxic tort claims. We can handle your case from the day it is filed or when you’re on the courtroom steps headed to trial.

Get the best.

RDDHI has won awards, but our true measure of success is the respect we’ve earned from our clients, our colleagues, and our opponents. Trust our reputation for dedicated service at a great value.

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A doctor treating a patient for COVID-19. When employees infected with COVID-19 at work then infect members of their family at home—"take-home" exposure—then employers may become liable for the illness. Photo courtesy of the US Navy.

A new trend relating to COVID-19 lawsuits is emerging. Employers are now facing lawsuits for “take-home” infections.

In August, the daughter of Esperanza Ugalde filed a lawsuit against her father’s employer, alleging that her mother died of COVID-19, which her father contracted during the scope of his employment at a meat processing plant. The complaint alleges that Ricardo Ugalde worked as a butcher and was “shoulder to shoulder” with his coworkers while working on the processing line. The plaintiff further alleges that the meat processing plant was aware that other employees had become infected with COVID-19 but took no measures to mitigate the spread within the facility.

The complaint includes several negligent actions against the employer. Some of those actions include failure to warn when it knew or should have known of a COVID-19 outbreak at the facility and actively creating a risk of harm for its employees and those with close contact with those employees by not disinfecting the facility nor providing personal protective equipment (PPE).

View the full Ugalde v. Aurora Packing Company complaint here.

Take-Home Exposure Pre-COVID

This idea of “take-home” exposure is nothing new. In fact, asbestos litigation has been dealing with these types of cases for quite a while. Praedicat, a firm that evaluates risks for insurers, states that 7% to 9% of U.S. COVID-19 deaths are believed to come from take-home infections. The firm further believes that if American fatalities reach 300,000, businesses could see a cost of up to $21 billion in litigation

To be successful, the plaintiff must show a strong causal chain that connects the sick family member to the worker and then to the employer and the employer’s allegedly negligent actions. Despite this hurdle, businesses should still protect themselves by establishing proper safety procedures for their employees by following CDC guidelines, OSHA regulations, and state and local laws.

Employment and labor law.

Justin Ijei and the Employment Law team at RDDHI can help your business eliminate potential risks before they arrive.

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A marijuana plant. Missouri recently legalized medical marijuana, posing compliance challenges for employers.

In 2018, Missouri became one of the 33 states to pass the legal use of medical marijuana. Since then, Missouri has issued 192 licenses to open dispensaries and 60 licenses to grow marijuana. According to the Associated Press, a lab in Maryland Heights, Missouri, was recently approved to start testing samples of marijuana. The lab anticipates that medical marijuana will be available to patients by mid-October this year. 

The use of medicinal marijuana will create challenges for employers trying to keep a drug-free workplace.  Under the Missouri constitutional provision, a person is not permitted to bring a claim against any employer, former employer, or prospective employer for wrongful discharge, discrimination, or any similar cause of action or remedy based on the employer prohibiting an employee, former employee, or prospective employee from being under the influence of marijuana while at work or disciplining the employee or former employee, up to and including termination from employment, for working or attempting to work while under the influence of marijuana (Mo. Const. Art. 14, § 1). 

Compliance for Employers in Light of Legalized Medical Marijuana

Because there are no definitive tests to determine whether an employee is under the influence during working hours, there are many questions that await to be answered. Employers must ensure that their drug-free policy is in compliance with new state law. RDDHI’s employment law attorneys can help your business navigate the evolving state laws and regulations pertaining to medical marijuana, ensuring that you can maintain a safe and compliant workplace.

Questions about employment law?

Justin Ijei and the team at Rasmussen Dickey Dioszeghy Henry Ijei have extensive experience with employer/employee relationships and regulations. Contact us today to discuss your case.

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An empty courtroom.

The best trial counsel is well prepared and open for improvement. At Rasmussen Dickey Dioszeghy Henry Ijei we pride ourselves on continuously looking for innovative ways to improve our trial expertise.

Recently a member of our team went to the Defense Research Institute‘s Trial Tactics Seminar in Las Vegas, attending sessions ranging from jury selection to selecting expert witnesses. This event allowed our firm to be on the cutting-edge of trial preparation and defense for trial. From this event we learned new strategies to best support and defend our clients.

We know how important it is to be prepared for trial. RDDHI is known for its unparalleled attention to detail on every one of our cases. We bring focus and dedication to your case. We’re always seeking new methods and knowledge to add to our arsenal of skills and experience.

What’s your strategy?

When you’re facing a trial, you need to have a plan. Kurt Rasmussen and the team at RDDHI can make sure you’re prepared to enter the courtroom.

More about Trial Tactics