Monday Mentors with Houston Employment Lawyer Akilah Craig

Akilah Craig, labor & employment lawyer with the national law firm Vorys in Houston, joins us on today's show! Akilah talks about COVID's impact on employment law, race in the legal system, and how lawyers can use their time and talents to enact change.

Her firm/practice

• Full-service firm based in Columbus, OH
• Provides day-to-day counseling to businesses on employment issues as well as defend employers when the issues go to litigation
• She began her career as a commercial litigator, but liked moving to a role that had both the counseling and litigation piece, as well as focusing in on labor/employment
• Multi-state practice, so many clients are looking to different states' rules to look for and adopt best practices
• The drama of labor/employment cases keeps you on your toes
• Some states and many companies/employers were already providing protections that Title VII now provides via the recent Supreme Court ruling, which not requires it across the country
  • most employers want to do the right thing and provide the broadest range of protections even beyond what laws provide

COVID update (as of 10/1/20)

• Many employers/clients have people now working remotely, which creates both opportunities and issues
  • More flexible work day especially for those virtually schooling kids at home
  • But what is the standard workday and how are employees meeting that standard?
  • How do we facilitate team integration?
  • Wage/hour issues, expense reimbursement for home office/working
  • Plaintiff's are tacking on COVID-related issues and reasoning to a lawsuit that otherwise would just be a standard lawsuit
• Vorys is now in a place where you CAN go into the office (within capacity limits) but you don't have to
• Several of her cases are on hold (and her employer clients aren't in a hurry)
  • But she has done a few depositions that have gone smoother than she anticipated
    • Nice to keep full control of a document that you present to the witness
  • Hearings are okay too, but it is unclear how jury trials could work

Race and the law

• The legal profession doesn't operate in a vacuum; if we acknowledge systemic racism exists, it means that it impacts the legal system
• There have always been injustices for people of color within the legal system
  • fair trial? access to counsel? jury bias?
• Cautiously hopeful that these conversations are happening and more people are engaged in the various legal processes (e.g. grand juries)
• Concerned as always that life happens and we just move on (the pandemic may have actually led to more staying power because we don't have as many other life-events to focus on)
• Important to not just plug into national politics but to educate yourself on your city councils and school boards where issues of policing and education are directly decided
• (D) - Specific policies?
  • Don't neglect the everyday impact you can have
    • Speak up for marginalized people in your workplace
    • Speak up for marginalized students who are struggling in school
    • Speak up when you see someone making inappropriate comments/suggestions/decisions
    • Be an ally by impacting the immediate sphere around your day-to-day life
• Lawyers are in a unique position to have an impact
  • Her firm has an initiative that focuses on minority-owned businesses
    • They have a harder time laying down the legal protections/foundations because of lack of resources/access to legal services
  • If you have time to get your nails done and time to get your hair done, you have time to give back.
• Where are we within the legal profession in terms of creating more opportunities for people of color in the legal industry?
  • The easy step is recruitment
  • But are they being treated fairly/equitably in the workplace? Are they getting access to the same work? OR Are they coming into a hostile environment?
    • Are you getting the same benefit of the doubt as a white colleague?
    • Are you evaluated on the same scale as the white colleague?
  • So the issue is really retention
    • Are people of color becoming partners?
    • Do "programs" that are created have actual impact?
    • Or are they leaving because the environment is not a fair/equitable one?
  • If we give people of color the same opportunities and experiences as everyone else, we'll see that the law firm / legal industry will benefit from it

Rapid fire questions:

• Name the one trait or characteristic you most want to see in an associate: willing to take on opportunities they've never done before (even if they fail, but that they grow)
• What habit has been key to your success: failing up
• Favorite app/productivity tool: iTimekeep
• Favorite social distancing activity: mini-trips around Texas and social distancing away from the city (Hunt is her favorite so far)
• Favorite legal movie: Just Mercy

Thanks again to Akilah Craig for joining us on the show!