Your Daily Three: June 9

1. Equality is still not the reality in America. Systemic racism affects the daily lives of people of color. Businesses and institutions must address its continuing impact.

2. Racism and implicit bias exist in the workplace, too. No company or institution is immune to it. LP recognizes that we need to work on ourselves and our firm to acknowledge racism’s lasting effects and ensure that LP is part of the solution and not the problem. We owe it to the people of color who work at LP, and we do it because it is what we believe is right. To that end, we took this time as an opportunity to reflect on our own position as a company, to consider all we have done and all that we have yet to do. We’ve conducted diversity and implicit bias training to foster an ethical and safe work environment. We’ve also engaged with charitable work across communities. We understand that this is not enough. We feel the need to implement internal and external policies to address the systemic racism that our LP colleagues of color and our clients and community feel. We don’t want to simply offer vague platitudes about how we will do our part to end injustice, but rather present tangible solutions. We are working through this challenge, to determine how we can best be agents of change. 

3. In addition to looking inward, we are also looking outward. We are going to partner with the community to assist minority-owned businesses in any way we can to leverage our collective skills and expertise as business lawyers to help those adversely affected by systemic racism. As a starting point, LP partners Kevin Slaughter, Christina Lutz and Abe Trieger are partnering with the Business Leadership Council to present a webinar to provide Chicago’s minority business owners impacted by recent civil unrest with critical information and advice on issues like business interruption claims and commercial lease and rent negotiations. Please share the program information and registration information available here. We will not stop there.

There’s more that we can and should be doing. We are committed to that work. This issue is a real priority in our firm. 

We welcome any input from you, our friends and clients, on what you are doing in your life and business to address this issue.