Tackling the legal profession’s hidden hurdle

In this episode of The Lawyers Weekly Show, host Jerome Doraisamy speaks with lawyer, academic and COO Fabi Fugazza about the pervasive issue of unconscious bias in the legal profession and how it impacts hiring, sourcing and progression practices.

Ms Fugazza – a lawyer at Equity Generation Lawyers, sessional academic at Western Sydney University and the University of Sydney, and chief operating officer of the Italian Coalition for Civil Liberties and Rights – stresses that unconscious bias is not limited to overtly discriminatory behaviours but also includes covert, unintentional biases that can significantly impact recruitment and progression within organisations.

She shares alarming insights indicating that unconscious bias is still prevalent in the legal profession and reflects on the fact that despite the increasing number of women lawyers in Australia, only a small percentage reach leadership positions – a disparity that is not limited to gender but extends to ethnic and racial minorities as well.

Ms Fugazza offers practical suggestions for combating unconscious bias, including standardising interviews, focusing on objective data, setting diversity goals, and fostering open conversations about bias within organisations. She also proposes the idea of “blind” recruitment processes, where identifying information is removed from applications to reduce bias.

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