Legalweek New York 2019. Equality, diversity and inclusion.

Last week I wrote about our participation in the Legalweek And I had mentioned to them that we had five great themes to develop.

One of these issues is how the equality, diversity and inclusion at the conversation sessions I attended. It is noted that these subjects prevail year by year, but special relevance was gained during the last convention, as the number of talks and exhibitions that addressed these issues increased several times. The fact that a significant percentage of exhibitors referred to the The role that legal departments have in promoting and promoting the market standard in these aspects. Examples like Metlife which requires legal studies to demonstrate plans for contracting and the retention of various lawyers, or Facebook to require one third of their suppliers' legal teams to be women and ethnic minorities, or the HP which retains 10% of the fee of external lawyers who do not meet the diversity requirements imposed by their policies, are a clear demonstration that the demand for legal services has an active and relevant role in meeting the current standards of society in these areas.

For his part, It was of great interest to know the existence of multiple technological tools that are used to promote effective compliance with these standards and policies. There are several examples, but I could classify them in 4 large groups: (a) Technology platforms that can ensure that the language used in the drafting of postings to work is free from gender or ethnic restrictions or prejudices how Textio; (b) Platforms specifically designed to provide access to more diverse candidates in gender, ethnicity or education how Jopwell, Handshake or Power to Fly; (c) Applications that replace traditional vitae curriculum review and use neuroscience and algorithms free of limitations or prejudices to select more optimal candidates how Pymetricsand (d) technologies to focus efforts on the progression of talent within companies without limitations associated with gender, ethnicity, economic origin or other conditions, like Humanyze.  

Taking into account the Success Stories on these issues and also the relevance that the discussion on this occasion makes us obviously reflect on the real efforts and actions with which Chilean legal departments, companies and legal studies have taken over this new global standard. There are several initiatives promoted at the legislative level and also some intentions promoted by the Chilean Bar Associationbut there are not many real applications in legal management in this line and, less so, are the cases of legal studies that could actually meet the expectations of customers such as those cited in previous examples. The discussion will probably come to Chile with a certain delay, as was the discussion on innovation in the legal sector that we started with. Alster Legal almost 4 years ago, but we have no doubt that this matter will gain strength and, probably, inclusive, remote, flexible and collaborative business technologies and models will help the incorporation of good practices to be forcefully and quickly integrated into internal business processes and legal studies.

Andrés Jara, CEO Alster Legal.