Alleyne says her IDEA work with Alberta's legal regulator prepared her for the newly-created position
Roughly a year after launching an inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility plan to attract and retain lawyers and other legal staff, litigation boutique Lenczner Slaght LLP created a new leadership role to move the project forward.
In late September, Susannah Alleyne joined Lenczner as senior manager of IDEA after more than three years at the Law Society of Alberta, where she served as the regulator’s first equity, diversity, and inclusion counsel and its first Black equity ombudsperson.
“I’m just thrilled to be here,” Alleyne tells Law Times.
“Lenczner has created this role, and it's demonstrative, again, of its commitment to IDEA,” Alleyne adds. “I think it's just another way that Lenczner can continue to be a leader in the legal landscape.”
Alleyne says her new role involves reviewing current IDEA initiatives that the law firm already has – mental health resources, first aid training, providing firm members with more personal days, and educational programs – and executing new ones.
These include formalizing affinity groups “that are representative of the different equity-denied and equity-deserving groups that belong here at our firm,” Alleyne says, adding that her role at the LSA was invaluable for honing her understanding of what IDEA strategies need to succeed.
“In order for them to be impactful and sustainable, they need to be developed, discussed, and executed with key stakeholders. I also learned that whatever organization I'm at, the organization's leading minds need to champion and sponsor the IDEA work that they've committed to,” Alleyne says.
IDEA strategies also need to be flexible and anticipate the possibility of change, she added, as well as woven into “the fabric of the workplace.”
Alleyne won accolades for her work at the LSA, including an award from Women in Law Leadership in 2022 and recognition as one of Avenue Calgary’s top 40 under 40 last year. Her accomplishments include overseeing the publication of the law society’s formal acknowledgement of systemic discrimination within the justice system and the LSA, and cultural competency education materials for the Legal Education Society of Alberta.
As equity ombudsperson, she helped lawyers, articling students, and legal support staff facing discrimination or harassment.
At Lenczner, Alleyne says she wants to ensure “that I’m leveraging our firm strength.”
“There’s a strong, firm culture here, and developing and implementing IDEA practices and programs need to align with the firm’s values,” she says.
