Hall Render is pleased to announce that Charise Frazier was selected by The Indiana Lawyer as an inaugural 2023 “Diversity in Law” honoree. This award celebrates the exceptional contributions of attorneys and judges who have actively championed the cause of diversity, equity and inclusion within the legal profession in Indiana.
Charise is a shareholder at our firm and serves diligently as the Vice President of DEI. In an interview with Charise, she touches on the challenges and barriers to achieving greater diversity and inclusion in the legal profession and how to address them:
To have a diverse and inclusive workplace it’s important to have people of diverse cultures, experiences and backgrounds in all levels of a law firm or legal department. The lack of diversity in leadership in law firms and in-house legal departments continues to be a challenge to achieving greater DEI in the legal profession because organizations do not have a diverse group of individuals at the table making decisions. With respect to minorities, continued barriers include inadequate access to mentors/sponsors that will help to develop and grow minorities as lawyers and help counter preconceived biases based on race.
To move the DEI needle in the legal profession, individuals will have to truly reflect on their biases and what they can do to help make a change. When we are all working on ourselves to move the needle, we will see progress. Legal organizations must ensure that DEI is incorporated into the overall business strategy. Organizations must take intentional action to develop and advance diverse talent at all levels within the organization in an equitable manner by first understanding where the organization is at on its DEI journey, and then developing a business strategy to take steps to ensure that everyone including attorneys and administrative professionals have the opportunity to be successful in the organization.
Charise’s legal practice focuses on a wide range of health care matters, including privacy and technology, clinical services, patient care, behavioral and mental health, electronic health records, mergers and acquisitions and compliance counsel. Additionally, Charise was recently included in the “Best Lawyers in America” listing by Best Lawyers and was named in the National Black Lawyers “Top 100 List” in Indiana in 2022.
“The law is intended to benefit everyone and to ensure that happens, there must be diverse perspectives around creating, implementing and enforcing the laws. Diverse perspectives are only possible when you have diverse representation. DEI is crucial to the legal field because it fosters innovation and growth to help remove barriers and increase understanding among our teams, which in turn leads to better, more innovative legal services,” stated Charise.
View the full listing of the 2023 “Diversity in Law” honorees on The Indiana Lawyer website here.
