Chapter 9: Discrimination and Harassment in Law Practice

Despite significant changes in the recent decade, the legal profession remains a challenging and sometimes hostile environment for many communities. Despite this toxicity, many lawyers from diverse communities have excelled in different legal practice contexts.

This section describes some of these problems and how they may manifest for students in an externship environment. Tools are included to address racism and other forms of oppression in a law practice context.

While this Chapter sets out discrete instances of discrimination according to particular social markers, the reality is that race, gender, disability and other intersectional expressions of discrimination are present in every area of practice and the bureaucracies of practice.

Content Forecast: this Chapter includes descriptions of instances of transphobia, anti-Black racism, homophobia, sexism, and other forms of discrimination.