Want to expand your audience? Sign up for ABA's Diverse Speakers Directory
Do you have expertise on a legal topic and belong to an underrepresented demographic? Then the American Bar Association may have speaker opportunities to send your way.
The ABA has recently launched a Diverse Speakers Directory. It is intended to help the organization meet Goal III of its mission and “promote full and equal participation in the legal profession by minorities, women, persons with disabilities, and persons of differing sexual orientations and gender identities.”
In June 2016, the ABA Board of Governors approved changes that require any ABA-sponsored CLE panel of three people or more to have at least one member who adds diversity by way of their race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability.
To help CLE event planners meet this standard, the ABA Office of Diversity and Inclusion created the directory. Both ABA and non-ABA members are invited to sign up and create a profile outlining their areas of legal expertise and diversity demographic. There is also the opportunity to add video or audio from any previous speaking engagements or CLE panels you have participated in.
Providing this information is voluntary, and only ABA staff members will have access to it. The ABA Privacy Policy considers demographic details to be sensitive personally identifiable information. The directory would be used by the more than 3,500 ABA entities looking for speakers at their events or experts in a subject matter.
Pedro Juan Windsor Jr., the managing director of the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, is available by phone at 312-988-5279 or by email to answer any questions or concerns you may have before joining the directory.
