Equal Opportunity and Diversity Committee

Co-Chaired by Kaitlyn Burns, Esq. and Jessie Louise Smith, Esq., the Equal Opportunity and Committee works to promote diversity and inclusion and lessen discrimination in all three branches of government and the legal profession.

Committee Feature

In its Final Report, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court Committee on Racial and Gender Bias in the Justice System chronicled the difficulty of determining the racial, ethnic, and gender composition of certain justice system personnel but nevertheless determined that women attorneys and attorneys of color were significantly underrepresented in both court appointments and among their attorney colleagues more broadly.

The Committee recommended that the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania include a voluntary demographic check-off box on the registration form issued annually to attorneys licensed in Pennsylvania. By collecting demographic data, attorneys, judges, legal educators, and other system employers and personnel can establish a baseline against which they can measure their progress in increasing diversity in their educational institutions, companies, law firms, and appointments. In 2018, the Supreme Court’s Disciplinary Board (the “Board”) adopted this recommendation, thereby establishing a resource for diversity efforts throughout the Commonwealth. Each year, the Committee receives the demographic data collected by the Board and produces infographics capturing both one-year snapshots and multi-year data trends. The Committee distributes these summaries via its social media pages and to bar associations, President Judges, and advocacy organizations throughout the Commonwealth.

Another of the first recommendations of the Supreme Court Committee was to implement codes of conduct applicable to judges and attorneys precluding discriminatory conduct. In 2023, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania approved the amendments to the Judicial Code for which the Commission advocated. It took several years for a similar measure (Pennsylvania Rule of Professional Conduct 8.4(g), which prohibits attorneys from knowingly engaging in harassment or discrimination) to be approved in April 2024, having withstood legal challenges that went all the way to the United States Supreme Court.

The Committee’s recent and current initiatives include the following:

• Publishing and distributing in-depth data regarding the demographic composition of the Pennsylvania judiciary, the General Assembly, and the executive branch.
• Partnering with allied professionals and experts to secure non-discrimination protections for LGBTQ+ youth in the foster care system and draft model guidance to be shared with stakeholders across the Commonwealth.
• Collaborated with organizations including the Governor’s Advisory Commission on LGBTQ Affairs and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission to administer statewide webinars addressing the importance of local non-discrimination ordinances, LGBTQIA+-focused developments at the state and federal levels, and legal protections available to LGBTQIA+ Pennsylvanians.
• Advocated in support of legislation designed to secure the same protections for LGBTQIA+ individuals that are currently afforded to other Pennsylvanians. This legislation, entitled the “Fairness Act,” would prevent individuals from being denied access to housing, employment, or public accommodations based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. For the first time in its 22-year history of being introduced, the Fairness Act passed the PA House of Representatives in the 2023-24 legislative term, receiving bipartisan support. The Committee is coordinating with stakeholders to secure the bill’s passage in both chambers.
• Submitted comments to the Civil Procedural Rules Committee on its proposal to adopt a statewide rule governing name change petitions in Pennsylvania to simplify and modernize the process for all name change petitioners.
• Contributed to an amicus brief in support of the doctrine of “parentage by intent.” As the availability and use of Assistive Reproductive Technology (“ART”) continues to expand, the doctrine ensures that families created with the assistance of ART are on equal legal footing with families who conceive unassisted. The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania ultimately adopted this doctrine in the landmark case, Glover v. Junior.