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Why is disability inclusion a business imperative? How can organizations harness allyship to dispel misconceptions and lay the foundation for meaningful representation? In this podcast, we consider the business case for investing in disability inclusion – an often forgotten strand in corporate DEI efforts – and the importance of changing mindsets in order to ensure progress.  Our presenters delve into how organizations can pursue their business goals while investing in DEI by acting in a truly responsible manner and making effective use of the tools at their disposal.  Our host David Boutcher is joined by Vaibhav Adlakha, Joanne Christopher, and Carole Mehigan. ----more---- Transcript:  Intro: Welcome to the Reed Smith podcast Inclusivity Included: Powerful Personal Stories. In each episode of this podcast, our guests will share their personal stories, passions and challenges, past and present, all with the goal of bringing people together and learning more about others. You might be surprised by what we all have in common, inclusivity included.  David: Hello, everyone. Welcome back to Inclusivity Included. My name's David Boutcher. I'm a partner in the Reed Smith Global Corporate Group based in London. The title of this podcast is Diversity, equity and inclusion: Disability, a key focus for organizations. I've been involved with uh LEADRS, Reed Smith's Disability Group, since it began. And we thought it would be important to uh have a podcast as to why we think it's important to focus on, on disability, disability events, uh disability initiatives. Uh I'm joined by colleagues, Vaibhav Adlakha, Joanne Christopher, and Carole Mehigan. As they join the podcast, I will ask them to say a little bit about, about uh who they are as well. So I think um I'd like to kick off with talking about some of the specific events that we've had over recent years and the reasoning behind them and why we think they're really important and uh Vaibhav perhaps you'd like to kick us off on that. Vaibhav: Thanks David. So as David mentioned, my name is Vaibhav Adlakha. I am an associate in our competition team here in London, but I also have an interest specifically in the diversity inclusion issues. I also have a physical disability and use a wheelchair. Now, I wanna begin with a personal, little personal thing. Before I joined Reed Smith and I thought about what my identity was going to be, I thought I only wanted to be a lawyer, but as I joined and began my journey here at Reed Smith, I realized that we have a platform to make the change what we want to see in the profession and be a leader in what we want, how we want people to see view the profession. As David often says, we are the best of a bad bunch. But I guess my goal was to try and create uh something where it is beyond my own success. It is a legacy that we can continue. Just to spotlight on one of on some of our events, we started in doing our Disability Inclusion Summits in 2020. Um Necessity is the mother of invention. So uh during the pandemic, we wanted to celebrate International Day of Persons with Disabilities. And we, thought, what better way to do that when by discussing issues and creating an environment not only for our ourselves, but also for our clients and anyone who wishes to participate, to be honest, uh whether no matter how far you are in your disability journey, whether you have reservations, whether you're further ahead, whether you're converted. So that's the Disability Summits explored different topics. How it is to work in the pandemic. What is the myths of uh disability inclusion? How can you embrace the journey? What are some of the things that different clients have done in their journey to disability? So long story short, the the Disability Summits were done as a platform to of discussion no matter how, how far you are in that journey. And we believe that it's an important, important aspect to understanding what we can do better, how we can invest i

We delve into the transformative initiatives undertaken by LexisNexis to shape the landscape of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in the legal industry. Our guest, Adonica Black, director of global talent development and inclusion at LexisNexis, shares insights into the organization’s commitment to fostering a culture of inclusion, supporting law firms in their DEI efforts and making a significant impact through innovative programs like the LexisNexis African Ancestry Network and LexisNexis Rule of Law Foundation Fellowship. Join our host, Bareeq Barqawi, for a thought-provoking conversation on the current state and future trends of DEI in the legal sphere. ----more---- Transcript: Intro: Welcome to the Reed Smith podcast, Inclusivity Included: Powerful Personal Stories. In each episode of this podcast, our guests will share their personal stories, passions and challenges, past and present, all with the goal of bringing people together and learning more about others. You might be surprised by what we all have in common, inclusivity included. Bareeq: Welcome to Inclusivity Included our DEI podcast at Reed Smith. I'm your host, Bareeq Barqawi. And today we have the honor of hosting Adonica Black, the Director of Global Diversity and Inclusion for LexisNexis Legal and Professional. Adonica's journey is an inspiring blend of legal expertise, commitment to diversity and inclusion and a passion for justice. Welcome, Adonica. Adonica: Thank you so much, Bareeq. Very happy to join you. Bareeq: Thank you. Um So let's kick things off by discussing your role as the director of Global Diversity and Inclusion at LexisNexis. How is your personal and professional journey influenced your approach to fostering a culture of inclusion within organizations? Adonica: Yes. So my background is a bit unique because I have a legal background. Um I formerly was in litigation before joining LexisNexis. So I have the perspective of both um a practitioner as well as from the business perspective and the value of diversity, equity and inclusion in both arenas. So when transitioning into the business of the law through LexisNexis, um I started actually working with our largest clients. I'm based in the Washington, D.C. area and started working um on very straightforward kind of business development with our clients. And in those conversations and experiences had the opportunity to connect with so many different attorneys in different practice areas and discuss their, you know, the value system that they bring to their practice. And in those conversations uncovered this emerging more explicit value. I think it's the value has always existed but more explicitly stated value around a culture of inclusion in the practice of law and a want to achieve justice. And that really led me on my professional journey towards where I am currently as the global Director of Inclusion and Diversity for LexisNexis as an opportunity arose within the organization to really exemplify those values that have existed in, in myself and in the profession through this specific role. Bareeq: That's amazing, especially because having that knowledge and background, I think makes you even more equipped to understand different perspectives that come into DEI especially in the legal industry. So LexisNexis has demonstrated a really strong commitment to diversity and inclusion. Can you highlight one or two key initiatives or actions that LexisNexis has undertaken recently to promote that culture within the organization? Adonica: Yeah, so as a business, we think about our culture of inclusion um through four pillars, what we call um our foundational pillar of making sure that our vision of our culture is strong and our leadership's commitment and accountability to our culture of inclusion is also strong. And then we have focus on external making sure that our external participation with our customers and the external community supports our culture of inclusion. So as a

In this episode, we delve into the critical intersection of law and technology, exploring the multifaceted landscape of digital accessibility. Joining Bareeq Barqawi, Reed Smith’s DEI talent development analyst, are three distinguished panelists: Angie Matney, counsel in the Entertainment and Media Industry Group at Reed Smith; Jamie Dean, senior corporate counsel on Microsoft’s Accessibility Regulations team; and Ken Nakata, an accessibility consultant with Converge Accessibility and a former U.S. DOJ attorney. Discover key legal considerations, collaborative challenges, and proactive measures for enhancing accessibility in the digital landscape with our insightful panel. ----more---- Transcript: Intro: Welcome to the Reed Smith podcast. Inclusivity Included: Powerful Personal Stories. In each episode of this podcast, our guests will share their personal stories, passions and challenges, past and present all with a goal of bringing people together and learning more about others. You might be surprised by what we all have in common, inclusivity included. Bareeq: Welcome to another episode of Inclusivity Included, Reed Smith's podcast on fostering diversity, equity and inclusion. I'm your host, Bareeq Barqawi DEI talent development analyst at Reed Smith. Today we're diving into the realm of digital accessibility and accessibility audits, joined by three incredible experts in the field. I'm delighted to have Angie Matney, Reed Smith counsel in the Entertainment and Media Industry group. Joining us today with a focus on information, privacy, data, security, and digital accessibility. Angie supports clients across diverse sectors including health care, entertainment, retail and finance. She's also a part of our LEADRS, business inclusion group, supporting professional and personal development of individuals with all types of disabilities at the firm and as someone with a complete loss of sight. Joining us also is Jamie Dean, senior corporate counsel on Microsoft's accessibility regulations team with a wealth of experience, Jamie champions accessibility and technology, drawing from his personal journey as a person with a loss of sight and his extensive legal and rowing background. And I'm also thrilled to welcome Ken Nakata, former senior trial attorney with the US Justice Department's disability rights section. Recognized for developing nationwide ADA policies for the internet and spearheading accessibility in federal government IT. He's also a founding board member of the International Association of Accessibility Professionals. Welcome everyone. So let's get started. I'm going to ask Angie the first question and as counsel in the Entertainment and Media Industry group at Reed Smith, Angie from a legal standpoint, what are the key legal considerations that companies should be aware of in terms of regarding digital accessibility? Angie: Thanks Bareeq. Yeah. So the I would say one thing to keep in mind is that the legal landscape is uh you know, there are several different laws that might implicate digital accessibility considerations. And then within that though, there are different interpretations of some of those. And so I think it can be a little bit overwhelming at first maybe to, to navigate and, and that's where, you know, counsel can definitely assist. And so the types of laws that involve digital accessibility, we have civil rights laws and we have procurement laws and now we're seeing more, you know, consumer privacy laws and regulations that look at that as well. So in the civil rights arena and the non-discrimination area, it would be, of course, the Americans With Disabilities Act, that's what most people in the US sort of automatically think of when you start to talk about accessibility. And, you know, the ADA there's been a, a long history that we definitely uh don't have time to fully go into here. But suffice to say there have been sort of different interpretations and proposed interpretations as to whe

Pariti Sutaria, organizer of TEDxCamden and graduate student at Rutgers School of Business, joins Iveliz Crespo and Bareeq Barqawi to discuss the fascinating world of TEDx speaking and event organization. Join us as we delve into the intricacies of preparing for and securing a coveted spot on the TEDx stage. Discover behind-the-scenes insights into curating powerful, thought-provoking talks that resonate with a global audience. Whether you're an aspiring speaker or simply curious about the magic that makes TEDx events unforgettable, this episode is your backstage pass to the TEDx experience. Stay tuned to gain valuable insights from Pariti that will inspire and inform, exclusively for our dedicated community of Reed Smith attorneys and staff. ----more---- Transcript: Intro: Hi, I'm John Iino and I'm Iveliz Crespo. Welcome to the Reed Smith podcast,  Inclusivity Included: Powerful Personal Stories. In each episode of this podcast, our guests will share their personal stories, passions and challenges, past and present all with the goal of bringing people together and learning more about others. You might be surprised by what we all have in common, inclusivity included. Iveliz: Hello, everyone. Welcome to our podcast Inclusivity Included. I am your host, Iveliz Crespo and I'm joined today by our co-host Bareeq Barqawi. Bareeq is Reed Smith's DEI talent development analyst. So welcome Bareeq. So happy to have you join us today. Bareeq: Thank you so much, Iveliz. I'm excited to be here. We are joined today by Pariti Sutaria, a graduate student at Rutgers School of Business pursuing her MBA with a concentration in marketing. She graduated this year with a Bachelors of Science in management statistics and leadership. Pariti is also the organizer of TEDxCamden, which brings annual TEDx talk conferences to the city of Camden to share ideas worth spreading within the local community and beyond. The TEDx talks and performances organized by Pariti and her team have garnered millions of views on ted.com and YouTube making a significant impact on a global scale. As an immigrant and first generation student, Pariti is deeply committed to advocacy and activism with a particular focus on gender equity, anti colonialism and racial justice. In her free time, Pariti is a mehndi and henna artist who loves designing and doing traditional hand art. Welcome, Pariti. Pariti: Hi. Thank you so much for having me. I'm super excited to be here today. Bareeq: Of course, we are excited to kick this off and discuss more of your experiences as a TEDxCamden organizer. So I'm gonna start with what inspired you to become involved in organizing TEDx events. Pariti: Yeah, I would say honestly, the city of Camden, I really care about TEDx talk and I've always watched them ever since I was young and I feel so inspired and, and I wanna do like innovative work every time I hear different TEDx talks or TED Talks. And since then, I've always had a goal of, you know, attending a TED conference. And when I started college, I realized like, hey, I can put together a TEDx conferences myself. And so through a licensing process, TED has uh I was able to gain an organizer license to organize TEDx talks for the city. And now that's what we do. And I love bringing innovative and inspiring work and speakers and performers to Camden. Um and then also to kind of shed a global light on Camden, the city, what it has to offer from its like community, art culture, its people. Uh So people could also see Camden in a new light, Um maybe passive stereotypes. Iveliz: Absolutely. I really appreciate that, you know, as I shared with you before we started recording this, this episode and I, I'm a Camden native. I'm really proud of where I grew up. Um And I'm happy to see that so many great things are happening in the city. And I think, you know, dispelling a lot of those stereotypes is incredibly important, uh especially, you know, given that there is so much promise in the city a

LEADRS and PRISM are Business Inclusion Groups (BIGs) at Reed Smith that represent individuals with disabilities and persons in the LGBTQ+ community, respectively, whose members face a common challenge: the issue of disclosure. Persons in the LGBTQ+ community and those with disabilities – particularly of the non-visible type such as mental illness or neurodiversity – may struggle with publicly disclosing the very aspects that underlie their diversity. That is, people with disabilities and those who identify as LGBTQ+ may struggle with the decision to reveal such information in their workplace for fear of stigma, hostility, judgment, and/or retaliation. According to various studies of persons with disabilities and LGBTQ+ individuals in the legal profession, the concerns they face are similar. The struggle with self-disclosure is one of the reasons that support from management and peers in the workplace – whether through community events, available resources, affinity, or BIGs – is so crucial. Further, this places particular importance on allyship – where people who do not necessarily have a disability or identify as LGBTQ+ become part of the support network. We are delighted to have a number of individuals from PRISM and LEADRS discuss the considerations they have addressed in relation to their journeys regarding self-disclosure, how the landscape in the legal profession has changed, what needs to improve in the future, and how we get there. Our host Iveliz Crespo is joined by guests Jonathan Andrews, Jessica Parry and Erin Guna. ----more---- Transcript: Intro: Hi, I'm John Iino and I'm Iveliz Crespo. Welcome to the Reed Smith podcast. Inclusivity Included: Powerful Personal Stories. In each episode of this podcast, our guests will share their personal stories, passions and challenges, past and present, all with the goal of bringing people together and learning more about others. You might be surprised by what we all have in common, inclusivity included. Iveliz: Hello, everyone. Welcome to Inclusivity Included. I am your host, Iveliz Crespo. This episode will dive into a topic that I'm all too familiar with as both a member of the LGBT community and someone who has various disabilities, and that topic is disclosure. Now, if you've never had to come out at work or your personal life or decide whether it's safe to share your disability, then you may not understand the immense pressure that these decisions can have on individuals, but persons in the LGBTQ community and those with disabilities, particularly those that have non-visible disabilities such as mental illness or neurodiversity may struggle with publicly disclosing these aspects that underlie their diversity, the very things that make them well, them. To unpack this topic I am thrilled to be joined by members of two of Reed Smith Business Inclusion Groups. Jonathan Andrews, associate in the firm's global Entertainment and Media Industry Group based in the London office and Erin Guna Learning and Development manager in our Pittsburgh office are here representing our disability inclusion group called LEADRS. Jess Parry, associate in the firm's global Entertainment and Media Industry Group based in our London office is here representing PRISM, our LGBTQ+ Business Inclusion Group. Thank you all for joining me today. How's everyone doing? Erin: Great. Jess: Good, thanks. Jonathan: Good. Thank you. Iveliz: You know, thank you so much for joining. You know, this is a very important topic and I think that it's something that a lot of people struggle with and then for those that don't struggle with it, I think it's something they're not really aware of. So, you know, I want to dive right into this topic and, you know, I'll end with some advice that you can give to the audience that's listening, whether it's people that are thinking about disclosing or folks that are thinking about how they can be stronger allies. But before that, I want to get your, your perso

Emily Roxworthy, the dean of the USC School of Dramatic Arts, joins John Iino in an informative discussion focused on driving progress in DEI through storytelling, empathy and interactive theater. Dean Roxworthy shares her personal story of growing up in racially charged Detroit, Michigan, which in part informed her passion for advancing DEI as the associate vice chancellor of Faculty Diversity & Equity at UC San Diego. She also shares the impact of the recent SCOTUS affirmative action cases on the USC School of Dramatic Arts, and how organizations will press forward with their DEI goals. ----more---- Transcript: Intro: Hi, I'm John Iino and I'm Iveliz Crespo. Welcome to the Reed Smith podcast. Inclusivity Included Powerful Personal Stories. In each episode of this podcast, our guests will share their personal stories, passions and challenges, past and present, all with the goal of bringing people together and learning more about others. You might be surprised by what we all have in common, inclusivity included. John: Hey, everyone. Welcome back to the podcast. It's been a while but really excited with today's special guests for um those of you who know, may know that I'm a big USC person and so for our children, family out there, we've got a special treat with our guest today. But really all of our audience will really, I think love hearing from our, our, our guests today. And that's Emily Roxworthy. Hey, Emily, how are you? Emily: I'm great, John. Thanks so much for having me. John: Absolutely, so great. Well, let me give you a quick bio. I don't mean to embarrass you Emily, but um Emily Roxworthy is the Dean of the School of Dramatic Arts at USC she was formerly on the Theater and Dance Faculty at, at the University of California San Diego where she also served as the Associate Vice Chancellor of Faculty diversity and equity. Her research and creative interests include roleplay training, intercultural theater, digital media, performance and higher education. She also is the founder and artistic director of Workplace Interactive Theater, which is a theater company that emerged from the University of California's office of the President's Commission to create diversity training for all chairs and deans on the 10 UC campuses and using documentary theater based improvisation workshops. And finally, Dr Roxworthy's first book is titled The Spectacle of the Japanese American Trauma, racial performativity in World War Two and was published in 2008. So quite a lot of things there, Emily, welcome to the podcast. Emily: Thank you so much. It's really great to be here. I'm excited for this conversation. John: So our podcast is titled Powerful Personal Stories. So we always like to start with our guests to talk a little bit about themselves. And so please share with us your personal story and really how you became such a passionate advocate for all things DEI.  Emily: Thank you. Um So I was actually born in Detroit, Michigan in the mid seventies. I'm dating myself here. But much of what we know about Detroit today was, was true throughout my childhood. Um It's a very racially polarized city. It's generally um divided pretty strikingly along black and white lines. And my mother was a journalist uh throughout my childhood, worked for the Detroit News went to downtown Detroit every day. And I actually grew up in Detroit for my first few formative years in a very um racially diverse neighborhood and then moved like many white families did to the suburbs. But my mom continued to, to go to Detroit and cover um much of Detroit life um as a journalist and my father was in import, export trade. So what sort of balanced um this very racially polarized view of the world? Um That was um a lot of what made Detroit distinctive. At the time, my father did trade with Japan. And in fact, um that became my language in high school. I actually took Japanese. Um my high school was wonderful, had Japanese, German offered and then the o

Omar J. Alaniz, Reed Smith’s Dallas office managing partner and the U.S. deputy for PRISM, joins senior global DEI advisor, Iveliz Crespo (Philadelphia) and associate and PRISM EME co-chair, Tom Gates (London), to discuss LGBTQ+ History Month, the needs of LGBTQ+ communities globally, and how his lived experience as a Latinx gay man shapes his intersectional approach to his career and his advocacy work. ----more---- Transcript: Intro: Hi, I'm John Iino and I'm Iveliz Crespo. Welcome to the Reed Smith podcast. Inclusivity Included: Powerful Personal Stories. In each episode of this podcast, our guests will share their personal stories, passions and challenges, past and present all with the goal of bringing people together and learning more about others. You might be surprised by what we all have in common, inclusivity included. Iveliz: Welcome back to Inclusivity Included. I'm your host Iveliz Crespo and today I'm joined by guest co-host Tom Gates. Tom is an associate in the Entertainment and Media Industry Group in London and the co-chair of PRISM EME, Reed Smith's LGBT employee resource group. So today, Tom and I have the privilege of interviewing Omar Alanis, the managing partner of Reed Smith's Dallas office and the US PRISM Chair, Tom thank you so much for joining us as guest co-host today. Really excited that you came up with this idea to interview Omar. And Omar thank you so much for, for allowing us to highlight you with this episode. Tom: Yeah thank you very much. I'm very much looking forward to interviewing Omar and getting some of his thoughts on this topic. Omar: Very happy to be here. Iveliz: So Tom, why don't you kick us off with the first question? Tom: Great. Thanks very much, Iveliz. So Omar, thanks again for joining us today. My first question for you on this topic of LGBTQ+ History Month is, in the last year this has brought about a considerable amount of anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in the US but also internationally. In light of these attacks why do you think it's still important to acknowledge and reflect upon LGBTQ+ history? Omar: Well, I think it shows that there's still so much work to be done in the fight for equality and that has evolved over time, you know, with respect to different issues in our, in our community. And the latest one unfortunately is against the trans members of our community. And it just goes to show that, you know, we can't be complacent because we have made quite in the on the US side, at least so I know we've made quite a bit of strides at, at, at the US Supreme Court level, but crafty people that are motivated to attack our community have stayed vigilant and therefore we need to stay vigilant. Iveliz: So Omar, thank you so much for that. And you know, I'm really happy that you're here and you're able to share your wisdom on these LGBT issues impacting us. The name of the podcast is Inclusivity Included: Powerful Personal Stories and part of what we like to do is to showcase it's not only people's wealth of knowledge and various issues but to highlight who they are. And so just for our audience who may not know who Omar is, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and what drives you to be an activist to be an advocate in this space? Omar: Yes, thank you. I mean, I think of a lot of it, the motivation frankly is my own personal history. From a very young age my parents kind of always instilled this view that, that I was going to be successful. And I never really kind of understood that, but I was always kind of always was on the path to kind of fulfill that prophecy and everything was going great until, you know, I started getting into the profession. And there were some obstacles that I faced almost immediately, some setbacks that occurred almost instantaneously. And it did put me quite a, you know, it took me backwards uh in, in my path. And so I spent quite a bit of time in my, the early part of my careers getting back up to or I felt like I n

Invisible disabilities can affect a person’s efforts to work, go to school, socialize, and more. Although invisible disabilities create challenges for those who have them, it can be difficult for organizations and others to recognize or acknowledge the reality of the disability. In this episode, Reed Smith partner Luke Debevec, who practices law with epilepsy, joins John Iino as co-host. Their special guest is Catherine Ames, a student at USC living with chronic illness and disability. Catherine has made it her mission to help other students and young people similar to her to feel less alone. She does this through “Chronically Catherine,” her column in the USC newspaper, the Daily Trojan, and as a USC Fellow conducting original research on the history of disability discrimination. Luke and Catherine share their personal stories and the challenges they face with their disabilities and provide advice on how organizations and others can better support persons with invisible disabilities. ----more---- Transcript:  Intro: Hi, I'm John Iino and I'm Iveliz Crespo. Welcome to the Reed Smith podcast, Inclusivity Included: Powerful Personal Stories. In each episode of this podcast, our guests will share their personal stories, passions and challenges, past and present, all with the goal of bringing people together and learning more about others. You might be surprised by what we all have in common, inclusivity included. John: Hey, everyone. Welcome back to the podcast. We have a great topic to discuss today. That's something I think it is very important for people to, to focus on and hopefully illuminating for the audience. That is focusing on inclusions for persons with disabilities. And today, I'm really fortunate to have as my co-host, one of our partners, Luke DeBevec, who is a partner in our Philadelphia office. He focuses on insurance recovery claims against the insurance companies. And Luke is also one of the founders of what we call LEADRS, which is our inclusion group for persons with disabilities. Hey, Luke, welcome to the podcast. Luke: Thanks John, great to be here. John: And as our special guest today, I am really thrilled to welcome Catherine Ames. Catherine is a student at the USC and she majors in law, history and culture with a minor in theater. But more than anything, she's just a advocate for patients and she's a researcher, writer and speaker. As a matter of fact, um I met Catherine at USC because we were at the event for Town and Gown where Catherine was the featured student speaker. And she was just such, such a powerful speaker on a topic that's so important with such a strong message that I thought it would be so great to bring her into our podcast. Just really briefly, Catherine is a chronically ill and disabled student and she's really made it her mission to make other students and young people like her feel less alone. Um She does that at USC through her column, The Daily Trojan, which is the student newspaper and her column is called Chronically Catherine. We want to hear more about that, Catherine and she's also a USC Vice Provost undergraduate fellow, conducting research on the history of disability discrimination at the university and research which she just presented at the American Society for Legal History Conference. So welcome, Catherine. It's great to have you. Great to see you again. Catherine: Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here. John: So let's start off Catherine if, if I can just focus a little bit on your personal story, you know, the title of our podcast is Powerful Personal Stories. Um share with us a little bit. Your, your story and how you became such a passionate advocate for patients and persons with invisible disabilities. Catherine: Yeah. So my health fell apart when I was in the middle of my college experience, I was abroad in New Zealand studying for a semester and I started to get all these crazy, weird symptoms. And, uh, I was 21 at the time, so I hadn

Louise Worrall, financial advisor and former lieutenant in the British Royal Navy, joins Reed Smith’s senior global DEI advisor, Iveliz Crespo and trainee solicitor Voirrey Blount to discuss how her military experience and diagnosis of a rare connective tissue disorder helped shape her outlook and approach to her life and career in finance. ----more---- Transcript: Intro: Hi, I'm John Iino and I'm Iveliz Crespo. Welcome to the Reed Smith podcast Inclusivity Included: Powerful Personal Stories. In each episode of this podcast, our guests will share their personal stories, passions and challenges, past and present, all with the goal of bringing people together and learning more about others. You might be surprised by what we all have in common, inclusivity included. Iveliz: Hello, everyone. Welcome back to Inclusivity Included. I am your podcast host Iveliz Crespo and today I'm joined by a guest co-host Voirrey Blount. Voirrey is a trainee solicitor in Reed Smith’s London office and also an active member of RS Vets, our employee resource group focusing on veterans, their families and allies. Voirrey, thank you so much for joining the podcast today. Voirrey: Thank you for having me as your co-host Iveliz. I'm really privileged to be here for taking something so important. I am honored to introduce our guest today who is a very close friend of mine since I was 18. So I won't want to say exactly how long that is. Um We were in the Royal Naval Reserves together when we were at University. Louise Worrall, who is joining us today, then went on to join the Royal Navy as a navigation officer where she excelled at all the different parts of her training and receiving her commission in 2012 and became a fully fledged lieutenant in the Royal Navy. And I'm now going to pass over to Louise who is going to tell us a bit more about her story in the military. Louise: Hello, thank you so much for having me here today. I'm delighted to be able to join you both. I joined the Royal Navy in 2011, and as Voirrey mentioned, commissioned in 2012. I'm not gonna lie, it was a childhood dream of mine. When I was four years old, I went to sea and decided at that point that when I grew up, I was going to be a sailor. When I was seven, I was taken to Navy Days, went on a big gray ship and decided when I grow up, I'm not gonna be any sailor. I'm going to be a Royal Navy sailor and for myself personally, navigation was always the area that I was most interested in, a bit of a geek that way I suppose. I joined as a warfare officer in the Royal Navy and I worked exceedingly hard to become a first job navigator. I passed my exams and I took on my navigation department on a mine hunter. Unfortunately, throughout my training, I've been plagued by small little joint injuries which I'd never really connected together. I'd recovered from them and just kept on going. I had issues with my knees, my hips, my wrists and things were starting to get a bit worse. I was at sea quite a lot of the time and my health just kept declining and I didn't know why. Eventually it got quite significantly bad to the point whereby the captain pulled me to one side and told me that I was being flown off the ship and I needed to get further medical intervention due to the reduction in my mobility, my inability to stand. For two more years, I stayed in the Royal Navy going through the rehabilitation centers, ultimately going to defense medical rehabilitation center, Headley Court. At none of these times, we were able to diagnose what the issue was, but I continued to lose mobility until I ended up on crutches. For some strange reason, the Royal Navy don't really like you going to sea on crutches. And for that reason, in 2017, I was medically discharged from the Royal Navy, age 27. Quite clearly that broke my heart. I didn't really know where to go from there. And it was two years after that, that I was diagnosed with a rare connective tissue disorder. Unfortunately, it is ge

Professor Miranda Brawn, founder of The Miranda Brawn Diversity Leadership Foundation (TMBDLF), senior visiting fellow at Oxford University, and board member for multi-sector global boards, joins Reed Smith’s Senior Global DEI Advisor Iveliz Crespo and Entertainment and Media Industry Group Associate and LEADRS committee member Jonathan Andrews to discuss the catalyst for creating TMBDLF and her extensive work in championing diversity, equity and inclusion across multiple industries. ----more---- Transcript:  Intro: Hi, I'm John Iino and I'm Iveliz Crespo. Welcome to the Reed Smith podcast Inclusivity Included: Powerful Personal Stories. In each episode of this podcast, our guests will share their personal stories, passions and challenges, past and present all with the goal of bringing people together and learning more about others. You might be surprised by what we all have in common, inclusivity included. Iveliz: Hello, everyone. Welcome back to the podcast. As always, I'm your host Iveliz Crespo and today we're joined by a special guest co-host and a very special guest. I'm proud to introduce Jonathan Andrews who would join as co-host for today's episode. Jonathan is an associate in Reed Smith's Global Entertainment and Media Industry Group, which is based in the London office and is a member of our disability inclusion group called LEADRS. Welcome, Jonathan. Such a pleasure to have you here today. Jonathan: Thank you very much Iveliz. Um It's really great to be here today and just to really champion and discuss some of the diversity and equity and inclusion work that we'll be doing and indeed the others that we support are doing and to that end, it's great to have a very spectacular and uh very well accomplished guest here. Uh Today, we've got Miranda Brawn, who is the founder and president of The Miranda Brawn Diversity Leadership Foundation of which I am also a proud trustee and also is currently a senior visiting fellow at Oxford University. Uh Being involved with the Brawn Review looking at diversity, equity and inclusion across business and the professional world. Miranda is also an advisor for various different organizations on uh how to improve diversity equity and inclusion. Um and many other things, but um in the interest of keeping it short, I should not go into all of them, but Miranda certainly does an awful lot for the call. So it's very, very good to have you here today. Miranda. Miranda: Thank you so much. It's a pleasure to be here. Jonathan: Thank you. So I guess what we really want to do. Uh Miranda is just sort of chat to you a bit about work that you've done in this area. Um and how you got here and maybe also where you sort of see it going, going next. So just to kick off, it would be great to understand a bit more about how you came to be recognized for your great work in this field. And would you be able to tell us a bit about your own journey into the DEI space? Miranda: Yeah. So I've been involved in the diversity equity and inclusion space for over two decades now and this stemmed when I initially started my investment banking career. So in terms of my career background, I've been an investment banker, I've been a hedge fund sales trader and a senior banking lawyer, mostly within the investment banking fields. And so it literally in terms of my diversity work, it started by attending diversity networking events for a German investment bank. And then I joined a US investment bank and I became a little bit more active. And I eventually, by the time I hit my mid to late twenties, I was chairing a black networking group. And so that was my first sort of active involvement in the diversity space. And one of the things I did when I worked with this large US Investment Bank was I launched a mentoring program. I then also launched a professional development program to help other employees from black heritage backgrounds to proceed and progress within that organization. At the time, I was one o

Continuing our Inspiring Leaders series, in this episode we kick off Hispanic Heritage Month by featuring Julia López, the partner chair of UNIDOS, Reed Smith’s Hispanic/LatinX business inclusion group. Julia is the national finance director for the Hispanic National Bar Association and past president of the Hispanic Bar Association of New Jersey.  She shares her sources of inspiration that drive her success and ability to overcome challenges.  Julia provides valuable advice to our listeners on inclusive leadership and the importance of fairness and justice. ----more---- Transcript: Intro: Hi, I'm John Iino and I'm Iveliz Crespo. Welcome to the Reed Smith podcast Inclusivity Included: Powerful Personal Stories. In each episode of this podcast our guests will share their personal stories, passions and challenges, past and present, all with the goal of bringing people together and learning more about others. You might be surprised by what we all have in common, inclusivity included. John: Hey, everyone. Welcome back to the podcast. As usual, joined by our co-host Iveliz Crespo. Hey, Iveliz. Iveliz: Hey, John, how are you? John: Great. Hey, just got back from vacation. Huh? Iveliz: I did. It was great. I almost didn't come back. John: It's always so tough. I know that those first couple of days and, you know, I always find when I'm back from vacation, my mind is still, whether it's slow or it's mushy, it's just not, not sharp, but uh I don't know if you're going through the same thing. Iveliz: Oh, man, I can tell you that I have like 400 emails that I'm working my way through slowly but surely. John: Yeah, I tell you, it's, it's tough to come back. But for me, uh you know, I, I, when I was in on, on summer vacation, I came back, It's the first couple of days, obviously you're catching up and all those things like that. But then you kind of reassess like why we're doing what we do. And for me, it's just kind of aligning with purpose and the, the, the day to day things that we do to support our program is, and then really made me realize it's as great as vacation was, It's really great for what we do. And so at least for me that's where I've, where I've gotten to, you know, and, and, and days coming back from vacation. Iveliz: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I'm certainly feeling very refreshed, which is good. In this work, you do need to recharge to continue fighting that good fight. And speaking of which I think, you know, I'm really excited to be introducing our guest today for this episode. We are thrilled to be continuing our Inspiring Leaders series with our next guest, Julia Lopez, who if you've tuned into some of our other episodes, you may recognize because Julia has certainly been a guest here before. For those who aren't as familiar with Julia, let me just give you a little introduction as to who Julia is now. Julia is a partner in Reed Smith's Life Sciences Health Industry Group and primarily defends pharmaceutical and medical device companies and products liability and commercial litigation. She represents clients in New Jersey Courts as well as courts across the United States in both federal and state litigation. Julia is also a DEI leader, both at Reed Smith and in the legal community. At Reed Smith she serves as the partner chair of UNIDOS, our Hispanic Latinx Business Inclusion Group for the Hispanic Latinx attorneys and professional staff at the firm. She is also the National finance director for the Hispanic National Bar Association and is a routine contributor to the DEI space. So welcome Julia. We are so thrilled that you are able to join us for our fourth episode in our Inspiring Leader series. Julia: Thank you so much Iveliz and welcome back. I'm so glad you had an opportunity to recharge in the DR and glad to have you back and glad to join you and John on this podcast. John: Welcome Julia. Iveliz: So Julia I've been blessed to kind of really get to know you since I've joined Reed Smith and

Continuing our Inspiring Leaders series, this episode features Pittsburgh Office Managing Partner Jason Hazlewood. Jason shares his journey to leadership at the firm, from associate to office managing partner and membership on the Executive Committee. He describes his four core themes for leadership, including an emphasis on equity of opportunity for all lawyers and personnel; elevation of the firm’s position in the local community; promotion of positive corporate citizenship and unity in the region; and the enhancement of the office’s culture and communications. He also shares how he stays grounded and maintains a positive outlook on life. ----more----Transcript: Intro: Hi, I'm John Iino and I'm Iveliz Crespo. Welcome to the Reed Smith podcast Inclusivity Included: Powerful Personal Stories. In each episode of this podcast our guests will share their personal stories, passions and challenges, past and present, all with the goal of bringing people together and learning more about others. You might be surprised by what we all have in common, inclusivity included. John: Hey, everyone. Welcome back to the podcast. It's great to be with everyone. As usual, we're joined by our co-host Iveliz Crespo. Hey, Iveliz. Iveliz: Hi, John. John: So it's so great here. We're, we're, we're doing a new series called Inspiring Leaders. And today just really privileged to have one of my favorite people at Reed Smith. Maybe I shouldn't say that so so openly, but, but it's, it's true. So I just gonna say it that, that Jason Hazlewood is really one of my favorite people at Reed Smith and just an inspiring leader. Uh For those of you who may not know uh Jason, we're hoping to introduce him to you. He's the managing partner of our Pittsburgh office and just an amazing, amazing person. Jason, welcome to the podcast. Jason: Hey, John and Iveliz thank you so much for having me here today. I really appreciate it. It's great to be here with you both. John: So, Jason,  as you know the, the title of our podcast is uh Inclusivity Included, Powerful Personal Stories. And I got to tell you, I've been so proud to, to witness your advancement in the firm. You know, first I know you joined as an associate. Uh then you made non-equity partner, then you made equity partner and now you're the managing partner of our Pittsburgh office. And I know that you also served on our on Reed Smith’s executive committee. But let's talk about, you know, you the person, Jason. Uh So tell us a little bit about your, your story, your background, your journey, you know how, how you became the person you are today. Jason: Sure. So I'm originally here from Pittsburgh. I grew up where uh primarily my mother and my aunt were both secretaries at big law firms. And that's really how I got interested in the law. Now, it was definitely a bait and switch sort of situation where my mother primarily work for litigators. And only to tell me about the cool stuff, the sexy stuff that those, those folks did. She never said, hey, my guy was here till 2 a.m. reviewing documents. You know, I didn't, I didn't get that news until I was actually a first year, second year, third year associate myself. But at that point, it was too late, I was locked in. Um, and so really, that's how I got interested in the law and really never wavered. I went to W&J here in Pittsburgh for undergrad, went to UVA in Charlottesville for law school. Came home, started my practice at another firm here in town and then came to Reed Smith in 2006. And I've been here ever since, you know, you guys haven't been able to shake me since that point. So here we are today. John: No. Absolutely. Absolutely. It's, it's so great. And I, and I remember, um, you know, you tell me before that you played football in, in a small college. So I played, uh played football at W&J. I was fortunate enough to be captain there and kind of a leadership role in my senior year. Of course, that was, you know, many moons ago, you