What is Inclusive Excellence?
The term “Inclusive Excellence” is a new paradigm for the legal profession. It was first used in higher education and initially developed by the Association of American Colleges & Universities. The AAC&U has led in developing “Inclusive Excellence” as a guiding vision for the higher education community and advances “Making Excellence Inclusive” to achieve that vision. “Inclusive Excellence” moves beyond numbers (compositional diversity), and involves embedding practices and philosophies that encourage diversity in every aspect of an organization. Numbers are a critical component of any initiative but as long as diversity in the legal profession is viewed, as it largely has been, as an outcome — a number, a strategy or a phase — progress will be elusive. Real diversity in the legal profession will never be achieved when the focus is solely on numbers. Strategies that fail to address underlying systemic causes and work to achieve sustainability are little more than transient attempts a
