Report of the Diversity & Inclusion Committee

• Author: By Nicholas K. Holmes
• Pages: 5-5

THE CONSTRUCTION LAWYER 5Spring 2020

REPORT OF THE DIVERSITY &

INCLUSION COMMITTEE

Nicholas K. Holmes

Published in The Construction Lawyer, Volume 40, Number 2, Spring 2020. © 2020 American Bar Association. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved. This information or any portion

thereof may not be copied or disseminated in any form or by any means or stored in an electronic database or retrieval system without the express written consent of the American Bar Association.

Each One of Us Needs to “Be That One Guy”

By Nicholas K. Holmes

Nicholas K. Holmes is chair of the Diversity & Inclusion

Committee of the ABA Forum on Construction Law

and a shareholder with Devine Millimet in Manchester,

New Hampshire.

On February 14, 2017, Outi

Hicks, a 32-year-old carpenter

apprentice and single mother

of three, was bludgeoned to

death with a metal pipe by a

co-worker at a construction

site in Fresno, California. Site

workers did not know that the

assailant had been taunting

and harassing Ms. Hicks for

days before he killed her.

The incident resonated for

Vicki O’Leary, an ironworker

with more than thirty years’

experience. During her career, she had been harassed and

she had seen the damage done to other women in the industry.

Vicki and other union women questioned why there wasn’t

“that one guy” who could have stepped in to stop harassment

or abuse. Her concern led her to create the pilot program “Be

That One Guy” to help empower other ironworkers to speak

up and take action when a tough situation arises on a job site.

Vicki was the keynote speaker at the Midwinter Meet-

ing’s Diversity and Inclusion Breakfast in Tucson. She shared

her journey from legal secretary to veteran ironworker. She

also shared the story of her accomplishments in the three

years since Ms. Hicks’s death. Her “Be That One Guy” pro-

gram earned the support of the Ironworkers International

Union president and has been rolled out to all 130,000 Union

members. In March 2019, Vicki received Engineering News-

Record’s 2019 Award of Excellence for her work.

On my ight home, I found myself reecting about times

I may have failed to “be that one guy” and stood by quietly

when a co-worker or colleague was mistreated. The Forum

is a wonderful organization, but we can do better to make

it more welcoming and inclusive. We all need to strive to be

that one guy who stands up for others. Here are three con-

crete actions you can take.

1. Attend the Diversity and Inclusion Breakfasts.

Friday morning can come early, but attend the Diversity and

Inclusion Breakfasts held at each national meeting. First, they

are an opportunity to learn from incredible speakers. For

example, those who attended the 2015 Annual Meeting in

Boca Raton will never forget the presentation by Fred Gray, a

civil rights lawyer who worked alongside Martin Luther King

Jr. on voting rights and school integration, and defended Rosa

Parks after her refusal to give up her seat on a Montgomery

city bus. Just attending the Diversity and Inclusion Breakfasts

demonstrates that diversity and inclusion are core Forum

values and reminds us of the work that still needs to be done.

2. Sponsor a Diverse First-Time Attendee.

If you are a Forum member attending one of the Forum’s

three national meetings with a diverse rst-timer, the Forum

will waive the registration fee for both of you. We created this

program to encourage Forum members to recruit diverse law-

yers to attend their rst national meeting. It is available to the

rst 10 Forum members who register for a national Forum

meeting and who also register and bring along a diverse law-

yer—their registration fee will also be waived. Bring a young

associate from your ofce or a lawyer on the other side of a

case. More information is available on the Forum’s website.

3. Commit to Speaking Up.

Despite all the advances that our profession and our organi-

zation have made to become more diverse and inclusive, bad

things still happen. People are marginalized because of their

status, rude and insensitive comments are made “in jest,” and

people are excluded. Commit to speaking up the next time an

incident happens and extending a hand to the person slighted

or attacked.

At its January meeting, the Governing Committee of the

Forum voted unanimously to adopt a strategic plan that pri-

oritizes specic action items we will take to implement the

recommendations of our diversity consultant. During the

coming months, you will hear more as these new initiatives

fall into place.

While the Forum’s policies and programs are important,

the goal of becoming a more inclusive organization will

be achieved on a person-to-person basis. Whether it is at a

national meeting of the Forum, in the construction bar where

you practice, or even within your own rm, reach out to new-

comers and welcome them. Experience has shown that this

simple act can be the most effective way of helping people feel

accepted and included. Please join me as we work towards

that goal.