Talking to Lawyers Weekly about what firms could do differently, Ms Dalton said she was “always conscious that they might perceive that it was too difficult so why not take the candidate they didn’t need to make adjustments for?” This negative attitude then deprives the legal workplace of diverse and bright, young minds. 

Through their work with DALA, Ms Dalton and co-founders Ella Alexander and Natalie Wade are hoping to start a national conversation about what legal practice looks like for disabled practitioners. In Protégé, they shared tips for young and new lawyers applying for clerkships and have now turned to improving firm responses. 

DALA co-founder and principal lawyer Ms Wade said it is important that the process of hiring new clerks is “inclusive” and that firms look into training and insights into what an inclusive practice looks like: “For affirmative action, it’s time for clerkships and law firms to be outwardly supportive and encouraging of disabled law students.”

Ms Dalton said one thing that is really difficult for clerks is how firms can tend to “over-complicate” their application process. Although innovative interview practices are great – like psychometric testing, video interviews and assessment centres – Ms Dalton said it could also be really inaccessible and “place the onus on the candidate to disclose or request adjustments quite early in the process”. 

The assessment centres can also be challenging because candidates need to be “very direct with the reasonable adjustments they need”, often based on very little information about the activities they will have to face during the process. Firms that do consider reasonable adjustments have become the standouts. 

“I was really lucky that the one assessment centre I did attend is the firm I’m a graduate at now. They were obviously extremely accommodating and really showed me the gold standard for how these things can be run equitably,” Ms Dalton said. 

Special counsel and co-founder Ms Alexander told Lawyers Weekly it would be helpful for legal workplaces to expressly state in their clerkship communications that they would welcome applications from people with disabilities and will provide information from the outset about the process of disclosing their disability.

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“The way firms respond to adjustments is also very important,” Ms Alexander said. “For example, with me, I had a number of clerkship offers and when I called around and requested the adjustments, I decided to go with Clayton Utz because they came back to me straight away and said, ‘of course we can accommodate that, and how else can we support you?’. I think that was an absolutely fantastic response.”

Ms Alexander said she has been “very encouraged” by the conversations she has had with firms since launching DALA earlier this year. Firms have started putting in place great initiatives – for example, some firms have created targeted positions for clerks and lawyers and are taking part in internship and mentoring programs. 

Other firms, Ms Alexander added, have also set up internal networks for disabled staff and allies and are rolling out disability awareness training. She said she’s also happy to see that some firms have created Disability Action Plans and are taking “very concrete steps” towards being more inclusive for disabled lawyers.

“I’ve been very encouraged by the conversations that I’ve been having with law firms since launching DALA. I think that there’s a real appreciation of the value of diverse workforces both for workplace culture and for the services that we provide to our clients,” Ms Alexander commented. 

“Given that one in five Australians have disabilities, I think law firms are really starting to embrace disability as an important part of the diversity conversation.”