Lenczner Slaght Stands Against Anti-Black Racism

Lenczner Slaght continues to prioritize advancing equity, diversity, and inclusion (“EDI”) by addressing anti-Black racism at our firm, in the legal profession, and our community.

Over the last two months, we have committed to educating ourselves, engaging in dialogue, curating and sharing resources, and taking action to support the Black community in Canada in combatting the systemic racism and discrimination they face.

We have committed to raise funds for the Black Legal Action Centre (“BLAC”), a clinic that delivers legal aid services to low and no income Black Ontarians and is focused on fighting anti-Black racism. With funds already raised for BLAC, our campaign will continue to run until the end of August. The firm will match the amounts raised by our members during this campaign.

We are supporting BLAC because they are doing the crucial legal work on the ground. We intend to raise enough money to meaningfully assist the clinic in the work they are doing with individual clients and in their broader advocacy for members of the Black community.

In order to better understand our role in combatting anti-Black racism, both personally and as legal professionals, we are scheduling educational sessions on steps we can take to be effective allies. These sessions will include all members of our firm and are in addition to ongoing sessions that we have had and will have on implicit bias and inclusivity.

We continue to prioritize fostering an inclusive work environment. We are ensuring our people with diverse perspectives, backgrounds, identities and cultures are treated with respect and have an equal opportunity to develop, advance, and be heard.

Tom Curry, Managing Partner of Lenczner Slaght says:

“We are committed to advancing EDI and decreasing barriers for racialized lawyers through concrete initiatives like resume anonymization in student recruitment, unconscious bias training, inclusivity sessions, firm-wide resource sharing on racism and allyship, access to justice internships, the R&R Lounge, ReferToHer™, and support of organizations dedicated to advocating for underrepresented groups. To improve upon this commitment, our plan is to continue listening to all the members of our firm and the wider community to learn how we can be part of the solution to address systemic racism in Canada, and beyond, as a firm and as individuals. Our D&I Committee is leading our efforts and moving forward with meaningful initiatives to achieve our goals.”