In an increasingly interconnected world, cultural competence is an invaluable skill for all legal professionals.  But what does it mean to be a culturally competent lawyer?  And how can legal professionals work alongside clients and colleagues of varied backgrounds—while understanding how these differences influence behaviors? Join estate planning attorney Iffy Ibekwe to learn why cultural dexterity is essential for delivering legal services to a diverse market, and how lawyers can address sensitive cultural topics with clients.

1. Cultural Competence
for Law Firms
Speaker: Iffy Ibekwe
Host: Nefra MacDonald

2. Housekeeping
● Session length: 60 minutes
● Recording & slides emailed tomorrow (*CLE is only available for the live
webinar/ the recording is NOT eligible for CLE)
● Use to engage with fellow webinar attendees
and select “Everyone” in the dropdown
● Use to ask questions directly to panellists
● Please fill out the survey at the end of the session

3. CLE / CPD Information
To qualify for credit, you must:
1. Be logged in on your own device under the email/name you registered with
(cannot share logins).
2. Attend the entire live webinar.
3. Participate in the polls during the live session.
*If you have met the participation requirements, you will receive a personalized
CLE/CPD affidavit from mcle-clio@americanbar.org for the webinar you attended
to completion. Please check your spam or junk folders as these emails often end up
there. Please note you have to fill out an affidavit for each individual webinar. Once
you complete the affidavit, you will be able to download your certificate(s) of
attendance and they will be emailed to you as well from
mcle-clio@americanbar.org.

4. Cultural Competence
for Law Firms
Speaker: Iffy Ibekwe
Host: Nefra MacDonald

5. Senior Manager, Strategic Engagement at Clio
● Law Firm Process Junkie
● Legal Technology Evangelist
● Wellness Speaker and RYT 200
5
Nefra MacDonald
TODAY’S HOST

6. Principal Attorney, Ibekwe Law, PLLC
● Legacy Evangelist
● Mountainbiker
● Author
6
Iffy Ibekwe
TODAY’S SPEAKER

7. 7
Agenda
● What is cultural competence
● Why should we care?
● Demographic changes
● Being more culturally humble
● Additional resources from Iffy
● Clio’s offering & additional resources
● CLE / CPD Info

9. TAKE ME, FOR EXAMPLE:
• Naturalized American
• Obsessive plant lady
• Business owner
• Doctor’s kid
• Budding author
• Double Longhorn
• Wife of one
• Mom of four

10. 10
Do you consider
yourself culturally
competent?
a. No
b. Somewhat
c. Yes
d. I’m here to work on it!

11. WHAT IS CULTURAL
COMPETENCE?

12. To be [a] culturally competent [lawyer] means
having the capacity to provide effective legal
assistance that is grounded in an awareness of and
sensitivity to the diverse cultures in the provider's
service area. A cultural group is identified by shared
beliefs, values, customs and behaviors that define
what it is.
[Adapted from ABA Standard 2.4 on Cultural Competence]

13. EXAMPLES OF
CULTURAL
COMPETENCE
In some cultures, it
is considered
insulting to touch a
person's hair or to
point one's feet at
another.
[Adapted from ABA Standard
2.4 on Cultural Competence]

14. EXAMPLES OF
CULTURAL
COMPETENCE
Some clients consider
it impolite to have eye
contact with an older
lawyer, a female
lawyer or someone
who is considered a
superior.
[Adapted from ABA Standard
2.4 on Cultural Competence]

15. EXAMPLES OF
CULTURAL
COMPETENCE
Some clients may not
directly disagree with
lawyers in
conversation or only
indirectly address
sensitive legal matters.
[Adapted from ABA Standard
2.4 on Cultural Competence]

16. EXAMPLES OF
CULTURAL
COMPETENCE
Some clients may
expect their parents
to play an important
role in legal
decision-making.
[Adapted from ABA Standard
2.4 on Cultural Competence]

17. WHY SHOULD WE CARE?

18. DEMOGRAPHIC
CHANGES

19. Growing population
Fewer white people
International migration
Multiracialism
Divorce
Multigenerationalism

20. HOW DOES THIS AFFECT YOU?
• 63% of lawyers identify as men
and 37% as women in 2021.
• 85% of lawyers are white,
compared to 60% of the U.S.
population (2019).
• 4.7% of lawyers are African
American.
• 4.8% of lawyers are Hispanic.
• 2.5% of lawyers are Asian.
[Source: 2021 ABA Profile of the Legal Profession]

22. HOW DID WE GET HERE?
Alien Land Laws
No equal rights for women in USA
Chattel slavery started 400+ years ago
LGBTQIA+ Discrimination

23. HOW TO MAKE
YOURSELF MORE
CULTURALLY HUMBLE

24. • Stay curious
• Foster and champion a more diverse, inclusive, and
equitable workplace
• Use interpreters to serve a wider demographic
• Change your forms and language for person-centered
language
• Don’t assume everyone is heteronormative
• Market in a culturally-responsive way
• Get trained by a DEI pro.

25. HELPFUL RESOURCES
• Caste by Isabel Wilkerson
• Color of Law by Richard Rothstein
• The Danger of a Single Story – YouTube Ted Talk by Chimamanda
Ngozi Adichie
• Implicit Racial Bias Across Law by Justin D. Levinson
• Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi
• This Chair Rocks by Ashton Applewhite

26. LET'S STAY IN TOUCH
IFFY IBEKWE
Estate Planning and Probate
Austin, TX and Bentonville, AR
iffy@iffybekwe.com
IG: iffyibekweesq
https://iffyibekwe.com

27. 27
Additional Resources
& Questions

28. Clio EasyStart
Track your time and get paid
Everything you need to track your time, bill your clients, and get paid—plus some extras!
Clio Essentials
Optimize firm operations
Includes critical law practice management tools that allow you to work smarter, customize
how your firm gets organized, and communicate with clients and co-counsel.
Clio Advance
Scale your impact
Introduces unlimited access to new productivity tools and more business and financial
oversight. Priority on-call support ensures you get the most out of Clio.
Clio Complete
Grow your business
Scale your business by adding Clio Grow to improve and automate your client intake with
online forms, online appointment bookings, automated emails follow-ups, and more.
Lawyaw
New software for solo, small- and mid-sized legal practices that can help streamline
information gathering and document assembly, along with built-in e-sign and other features.
Visit clio.com/pricing to learn more.
Clio’s Offerings

29. Clio Payments
Clio Manageʼs new online payments platform makes it easy for
your clients to pay online using a credit card, debit card, or
eCheck—without the need for a third-party payment processor.
Clio Drive
Securely create, access, edit, store, and collaborate on
documents without ever leaving your desktop.
Clio for Clients
Clio for Clients, Clioʼs new secure client portal allows you to
streamline communication with your clients.
Text Notifications and Reminders
Use text notifications and reminders to avoid the costly
no-shows and unnecessary administrative overhead that comes
with organizing client meetings.
Visit clio.com/features/whats-new to learn more.
What’s New In Clio

30. Polls for Non-Clio and Clio Customers
Poll 1: For Non-Clio Customers
Would you like to learn more about Clio?
a. Yes, I would like to learn more about Clioʼs products
b. Yes, I would like to learn about the Clio Cloud
Conference
c. No, Iʼm not interested
d. No, Iʼm already a Clio Customer
30
Poll 2: For Clio Customers
Would you like to learn more about:
a. Adding Clio Grow to streamline client intake
b. Adding Clio Payments
c. The Clio Cloud Conference
d. No, Iʼm not interested
or I already use Clio Grow/Clio Payments

31. Additional Resources
31
● Blog: How to Challenge Norms and Build a Strong Law Firm Culture
● CLE-eligible webinar: How to Build the Best Virtual Law Firm, July 12
● Meetup Series: The Legal Marketing Masterclass Series, June - August
● Clio Cloud Conference October 10-11, 2022: Get your pass

32. 32
Questions

33. 33
CONTACT INFORMATION
/Nefra-MacDonald
@nefra_ann
nefra.macdonald@clio.com
888-858-2546
www.clio.com
Nefra
MacDonald
Affinity Partnerships Manager

34. CLE / CPD Information
To qualify for credit, you must:
1. Be logged in on your own device under the email/name you registered with
(cannot share logins).
2. Attend the entire live webinar.
3. Participate in the polls during the live session.
*If you have met the participation requirements, you will receive a personalized
CLE/CPD affidavit from mcle-clio@americanbar.org for the webinar you attended
to completion. Please check your spam or junk folders as these emails often end up
there. Please note you have to fill out an affidavit for each individual webinar. Once
you complete the affidavit, you will be able to download your certificate(s) of
attendance and they will be emailed to you as well from
mcle-clio@americanbar.org.