A “call to action” has been issued to all Illinois attorneys to participate in the first statewide survey designed to gauge the level of diversity in the state. The survey closes March 25, 2008, so please respond now if you have not already done so.

ISBA President Joseph G. Bisceglia established the ISBA Task Force on Diversity in September 2007 with a mission to implement the Diversity Pipeline Project recommendations and promote greater diversity in the legal community and bar association.

To that end, the Task Force has developed a statewide diversity survey—the first of its kind to collect quantitative and qualitative data. It has a twofold purpose:

• To create baseline data regarding attorney demographic information on a county-by-county basis. 

• To ascertain the satisfaction of Illinois attorneys in their law practices and work environments, and on diversity-related issues within the profession.

In order to obtain meaningful data, please participate, and promote and encourage all Illinois attorneys and judges to complete to the survey on the ISBA home page at http://www.isba.org. The survey takes about five minutes to complete. The results will provide valuable information on who we are as lawyers, and how we feel about our law practices and our role in the larger legal community in Illinois.