Ms Deo started her career in private practice with a lust for making money but has since become passionate about social impact work and diversity within the profession, which she spoke about recently on The Boutique Lawyer Show.

As a culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) woman and a member of the LGBT community, Ms Deo shared her thoughts on where the legal profession is headed in terms of diversity and inclusion – and why initiatives surrounding these issues are important post-pandemic.

Whilst diversity and inclusion are becoming higher on the priority list for Australian firms, Ms Deo said there is still more work to be done – having been a “diversity hire” herself.

“I appreciate that it is a difficult subject for a lot of people because you hire someone who represents a diversity dimension, but you don’t want them to be a token hire and you don’t want to look performative,” she said.

“I absolutely sympathise with people who are in those decision-making positions, but I think we have to appreciate that the shift from homogeneity to diversity is a huge cultural shift. And the thing is if the people with the power and the responsibility to make those shifts are the people who enjoy the privileges and thrived in the old status quo, it makes for a bit of a problematic dynamic.

“I think employers really need to drill down and understand what their core values are. If they’re being tokenistic, especially if you’re from one of those diversity dimensions, you can pick it up relatively quickly and look, we’ll leverage it for all we can, but at the end of the day, if it’s not a genuine effort, it’s not going to achieve the cultural shift you’re looking for.”

In terms of being a “diversity hire”, Ms Deo said it could be hard for organisations to strike the right balance – with it still being quite a grey area.

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“I strongly believe in the power of allies. So, when you think of things like marriage equality, we need our allies to support marriage equality in order to get it across the line. And the problem is when a lot of the times you look at diversity inclusion committees, and it’s full of people who represent diversity dimensions, and you want to have a good balance of people who actively want to help,” she said.

“I think one of the problematic things is as lawyers or people in general, we’re always looking for to-do lists. What’s the rules I need to follow that I apply in this situation to get the conclusion that I want, or whatever IRX is studying or the law schools are teaching now, but that doesn’t necessarily work because it’s so individualistic. There’s no one rule that you can use that’s going to be applicable for every South Asian person or a fusion Indian-Canadian, it’s not going to work.

“So, it really has to be individualistic, it’s a very human-centric approach and I know legal services are now having big discussions about human-centric approaches for legal services delivery, but the organisations as well need to have a very human-centric approach for how they’re managing their staff and their internal relationships, because that’s going to then inform their external relationships as well.”

There are a number of firms that have great diversity and inclusion initiatives and include allyship, particularly those who dedicate resources to a diversity and inclusion-specific role.

“That is a key indicator of a firm or an organisation’s investment into D&I, whether you’re actually putting money towards it because, we’re corporate so we speak in money terms and data and statistics. So, I think actually having a dedicated resource or a dedicated team is a great starting point and having informed practises,” she said.

“Another key factor for success, I believe, is when we look at diversity and inclusion with a lens of intersectionality and appreciating that we’re complex individuals with intersecting identities. So, you can’t ask me to centre my feminism or my identity as a woman before my identity as a CALD woman, before my identity as a LGBTI CALD woman. They’re all part of me and they’re deeply embedded.”

Particularly as we move into the post-pandemic new normal, Ms Deo explained that legal leaders and leading firms have the opportunity to dictate what the future of the profession will look like.

“The organisations which fail to embrace inclusion of diversity, rather than just this idea of adding diversity in spirit, unless they have a true inclusive approach to diversity, organisations will just continue growing and building, and those organisations who have failed to do that will just become redundant,” she said.

“The parallel that I see within the diversity inclusion spaces with the innovation space as well, firms that fail to uptake opportunities to make more efficient processes, or to adopt efficiencies, utilising innovative processes or legal technology, they’re becoming redundant, or they’re servicing a clientele who may not be here in 50 years’ time. Change happens and we have to move along with it. We have to adapt with it and the risk of not doing so is being left behind or just becoming irrelevant.”

Furthermore, Ms Deo concluded that the future looks “exciting” and said that there are more opportunities than ever for lawyers to learn from experiences outside their own world.

“I am ever impressed and humbled by the legal profession as right as it is with its problems. There’s just so much potential this profession has, we are advocates for change,” she said.

“And I think that really shows the capacity. It’s endless, what can’t you do as a lawyer? You have a law degree and it’s an incredible foundational degree to do almost any other job that you want than the very specific qualification caveat. So why can’t a legal profession do something similar.

“For those who are scared, I would ask them to question what it is that’s scaring you and maybe dig a little deeper into that because as far as I can see it, the future looks different and I think that’s a great thing.”

The transcript of this podcast episode was slightly edited for publishing purposes. To listen to the full conversation with Sheetal Deo, click below: