Task Force on Diversity

ISBA President Joe Bisceglia established the task force to continue ongoing pipeline initiatives and to focus on efforts to further diversity within the ISBA and the Illinois legal profession overall. To that end, President Bisceglia pulled together an amazing group of attorneys that shared his vision of a more diversified legal profession and tasked them to evaluate how best to progress diversity within the Illinois bar.

To accomplish this mission, the task force was organized into three working subcommittees, each with its own mission:

1. Diversity Pipeline Subcommittee -- support improved educational opportunities for diversity students and encourage all efforts for diversity students to enter the legal profession;
2. Illinois Legal Profession Subcommittee -- promote greater diversity within the Illinois legal community including support of the Commission on Professionalism of the Illinois Supreme Court and overall raise awareness of the critical importance of diversity within the legal profession; and,
3. ISBA Subcommittee -- increase the participation, leadership and membership ranks of diversity attorneys within the ISBA.

In 2007-2008, the key accomplishments of these subcommittees included the development of a pipeline "100 future leaders" proposal, the completion of a statewide diversity survey and the creation of the first "ISBA report card" detailing diversity statistics on the organization's appointments, leadership and professional staff.